Back in the early 1980s I fought in the Savate (French boxing or kickboxing) circut in Europe. I came across a few Thai Kickboxers from Thailand and I gained a very health repsect for them. You will benefit greatly from studying Muay Thai.
Muay Thai advantages come from learning to use your body's weapons with simple direct attacks that are effective i.e. the elbows, knees, shins hands etc...etc. It is a style that lends itself to be learned more quickly and easily than other complicated Asian arts.
At the same time I think that it is one the most effective Asian arts in existence.
Another benefit of learning Muay Thai, is that you will learn endurance which is so important to real fighting.
Muay Thai is a style of fighting and like every style it has its limitations. The one thing I would be careful of is holding your hands up high and out in front of your face as many Muay Thai fighters do. Such a stance leaves your mid torso exposed to kicks or body shots. This is not a good streetfighting stance as far as I am concerned. Now one American Thai boxing fighter told me that such a stance is for sport and that under real times he would hold his hands closer and into his body. If you are learning this stance for the ring and you want to use it, thats okay, thats a traditional way of holding your hands for the ring. But I do not think that it is good for the street.
I think that traditional Muay Thai punching is weaker and less powerful and effective when compared to the punches of Western boxing. It depends on the instructor that you have, as some have incorporated Western boxing punches into their kickboxing style. I would recommend supplementing your training with Western boxing. My experience with Savate has been the same. Some traditional Savate punches are weaker compared to Western or English boxing.
Sometimes the conditioning that actual Thai Muay Thai fighters go through is very extreme. They, in my opinion, become some of the fiercest comptetive fighters around. But all of that extreme training can be very hard on the body and I have seen few Europeans and Americans who are willing to go as far as Thai fighters in conditioning themselves.
