Brawling teenage hooligans were made to face off in the ring against professional Muay Thai boxers at a Songkran festival in Buri Ram township on Sunday night.
Newin Chidchob, chairman of Buriram United football club and influential politician in Buri Ram, told Songkran revellers in front of the i-Mobile Stadium, the home stadium of Buriram United, that he wanted them to enjoy the water festival without getting into a fight.
"This Songkran, I want to promise you that there won't be fights. But if anyone of you started a fight, I've prepared a boxing ring and professional Muay Thai boxers for you and you'll have to box for three rounds and you cannot say no," Mr Newin told thousands of people in the crowd.
On Sunday night, Mr Newin's guards caught five young men who were involved in fights at the fair. They were taken to the boxing ring to exchange blows against professional boxers. The matches can be seen in the video clip below.
Last year at a Songkran fair in Buri Ram, Mr Newin reprimanded two male youths who refused to fight in a boxing ring after they were caught in a fist fight.
Mr Newin, who is the de facto leader of the Bhumjaithai Party, lectured the pair after they had been taken to the ring, where neither of them moved for five minutes, refusing to fight.
Newin Chidchob poses on the cover of Forbes magazine.