A group of inmates walk outside to practice Muay Thai (kickboxing) at Klong Prem high-security prison. Muay Thai has a long association with prisons and prisoners and even its origin myths involve the incarcerated. It is said that in 1774 the Burmese king Hsinbyushin organised a series of fights between a Thai prisoner, Nai Khanomtom, captured during the conquest of the Siamese capital Ayutthaya seven years earlier, and nine Burmese champions. After defeating them all the king gave Nai Khanomtom his freedom. More recently the Thai prison system has embraced Muay Thai as a form of rehabilitation. In 2012 an Estonian entrepreneur, in conjunction with Thailand’s Department of Corrections, began a series of bouts arranged between Thai prisoners and Western Muay Thai fighters under the banner 'Prison Fight'. For the prisoners a victory held the potential of time off their sentence while the Westerners fought for a small purse and personal ambition.