In the 1960s in Japan, fights between Thai boxers and local karate fighters took place under Muay Thai rules yet without elbow strikes. Quite often, masters of Japan would lose such fights. As a result of these defeats, Japanese masters began to include parts of Thai fighting arts into their techniques to perfect them. Muay Thai became popular in Japan, with a local fad of kickboxing. This kickboxing is a mixture of Thai boxing and karate. Japanese championships started for this sport, inviting fighters from Southeast Asia. Consequently, Muay Thai quickly became well known in the area
Western fighters recognised it as one of the hardest and most effective fighting system after a tournament in Thailand in 1977. This event was a competition between top local fighters and the world kickboxing team. The rules did not allow hitting with knees and elbows, which are the main weapons used by the Thais. Even so, the national team lost, and Muay Thai started to become popular in America and Europe.
But real Thai boxing fame started in the 1990s when mixed martial arts started to develop. THis was contributed to, first of all, by K-1 tournaments, where his fighters mostly won. The same technique which was the best in the standing fight was used by MMA fighters.