Looks like Bojizhe and I are on the same page. Nice follow up.
Muay Thai claims to wipe out Shaolin Temple, media hype?
16:27, December 02, 2009

Five famous professional Thai Boxers offered a challenge, claiming that they wanted to "wipe out the Shaolin Temple" just before the 2009 Chinese Kung Fu vs. Professional Thai Kick-boxing Competition held Dec 19 in Foshan, Guangdong province, the hometown of late action star Bruce Lee.

"Shaolin Kung Fu is a lie by these monks to Chinese Buddhists, and Chinese Kung Fu is nothing compared with ours," said one of the five Thai boxers.

But Shaolin responded by saying the provocative words were "ridiculous", refusing to reply to the "secular challenge".

Zheng Shumin from Shaolin Temple said the temple is a holy Buddhist place where monks' primary concern is Zen practice and they would not get into contests with secular people.

"We receive so many challenges like this every year, we just don't want to reply," Zheng said. "We think this is hype from the Thai boxers and the organizers of the competition."

"In the history of Shaolin Temple, we never challenge or agree to fight others," said Zheng.

Emei director stands up in defiance

However, followers of Emei Kung Fu, another important school of martial arts in China, considered this a challenge that "any Kung Fu practitioner with a sense of justice should face."

Wang Jian, director of the Emei Martial Arts Association, and his senior disciple Huang Lin, entered the contest "to let the Thai boxers know that Chinese Kung Fu is never easy to beat."

"I couldn't bear it anymore ... after the public and all my fellow disciples urged me to show them real Chinese Kung Fu," Wang said.

"This is not only disrespectful to Chinese Kung Fu, it is also disrespectful to our nation," said Zhang Ji from Emei Martial Arts Association.

"As disciples of Kung Fu, whether from Shaolin, Emei, Wudang, or anywhere else, we should stand up to such defiance," he said.

Netizen: it is media hype

When the challenge is hotly discussed on the Internet, a netizen named “Bojizhe” on Tianya Forum, a hot Chinese Forum, said the coverage is not true, just media hype.

The netizen said he tried to verify the report from Thailand but was told that Kaoklai, the King of Muay Thai, never receive any invitation to attend the 2009 Chinese Kung Fu vs. Professional Thai Kick-boxing Competition and never claimed that Muay Thai could wipe out Shaolin Temple.