Matthew Shaer investigates the convicts of Klong Prem prison in Thailand:
In 2012, Kirill Sokur, a 35-year-old Estonian émigré and fight promoter, helped devise a new breed of behind-bars event: one that would match up, for the first time, Thai inmates and Western pros. He called his event Prison Fight and came up with the suitably catchy Battle for Freedom slogan. Sokur offered prison officials a deal: He’d provide the ring and the Western fighters and drum up attention from local newspapers and TV stations. The matches would be dubbed “charity events” – a nod to the fact that rehabilitated prisoners could earn their freedom through battle – which would make the prison brass look good. In return, Sokur would film the fights with an eye toward eventually selling DVDs or perhaps producing some kind of reality show.
… [T]he international market for fight videos has soared in recent years to become an annual multimillion-dollar industry. “I thought, You could have a murderer on one side and a professional on the other,” Sokur explains. “I knew it would be exciting for people. If a man is a killer outside the ring – if he’s learned to kill – think about what might happen inside the ring!”
Above is a Vice documentary on the disturbing sport.
The Dish 