Review from The Patriot Resource: Human Weapon, a new series from The History Channel, sets out to explore various combat arts. To lead the the search are Jason Chambers, a mixed martial artist, and Bill Duff, a former American football player and high school wrestler. We were sent only the first episode about Muay Thai, for review.
For Muay Thai, the hosting duo is off to Thailand. We have to give the series marks for travelling to the countries of origin, rather than settling for U.S.-based experts. Once there, their mission is to quickly learn Muay Thai so one of them can face a Muay Thai fighter in the ring. They travel to several training venues throughout the country to find that there are several styles. Then one steps into the ring to fight a rather tame match with just enough "punch" to it to let them know that they are not really that prepared.
Assuming that the series maintains the same style for subsequent episodes as it did for Muay Thai, viewers can expect to be given some historical background on the combat art, which in the case of Muay Thai's origin, it seems to be more legendary than factual. They also talk about the technical aspects that constitute the combat art, which for Muay Thai is based on the "science of the eight limbs" (hands, shins, elbows and knees). This is done through training demonstrations and computer graphics. Lastly, the combat art's impact on culture is touched upon. Thailand had thousands of Muay Thai fighters who fight once a month. Some of the fighters move to training centers as children and basically grow up there only to retire (even if they are champion caliber) by their mid-twenties.
We'll admit to not being familiar with combat arts, so we cannot speak to the accuracy of anything portrayed in the episode. That said, Human Weapon seemed to have a nice overview of all aspects of Muay Thai from history to technique to cultural impact. The hosts seem to have a basic understanding of combat arts and are engaging enough. There's nothing groundbreaking here, but if you have an interest in combat arts then Human Weapon is worth checking out.
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