Lethwei
Lethwei, or Burmese boxing, is a full contact combat sport from Myanmar that uses stand-up striking along with various clinching techniques. Lethwei is considered to be one of the most brutal martial arts in the world, as the sport is done bareknuckle with only tape and gauze while fighters are allowed to strike with their fists, elbows, knees, feet and headbutts are also permitted.
Disallowed in most combat sports, headbutts are important weapons in a Lethwei fighter's arsenal. This is the reason Lethwei is also known as The Art of 9 Limbs, and deemed one of the bloodiest martial art of the Indian cultural sphere.
History
Records exists of Lethwei matches dating back to the Pyu Empire in Myanmar. Lethwei, along with Bando and its armed sibling Banshay were successfully used by ancient Myanmar armies in many wars against neighboring countries.In ancient times, matches were held for entertainment and were popular with every strata of society. Participation was opened to any male, whether king or commoner. At that time, matches took place in sandpits instead of rings. Boxers fought without protective equipment, only wrapping their hands in hemp or gauze. There were no draws, the fight went on until one of the participants was knocked out or could no longer continue. Back then, Burmese boxing champions would enter the ring and call for open challenges.
Traditional matches include Flagship Tournament, which are still fought throughout Myanmar, especially during holidays or celebration festivals like Thingy an.
Lethwei is related to martial styles such Muay Thai from Thailand, Pradal Serey from Cambodia, Muay Lao from Laos, Tomoi from Malaysia and Musti-yuddha from India.
Modernization
Establishing rules and regulations
, who participated in boxing at the 1952 Summer Olympics, pioneered modern Lethwei by setting in place modern rules and regulations. He travelled around Myanmar, especially the Mon and Karen states, where Lethwei is more actively practiced. After training with some of the fighters, Kyar Ba Nyein brought some to Mandalay and Yangon to compete in matches.The Myanmar Traditional Boxing Federation or MTBF is a branch of the Myanmar's Ministry of Health and Sports and is the highest governing body for Lethwei worldwide.
In 1996, for the occasion of the Golden Belt Championship in Yangon, the MTBF implemented the modern Lethwei rules. The bouts, along with the undercard fights, were organised by the Ministry of Sport, Myanmar Traditional Boxing Federation and KSM group. This marked a big addition to the art of Lethwei and potentially would make Burmese boxing more marketable internationally.
In 2016, Myanmar's first international promotion called World Lethwei Championship or WLC launched its events using the modern Lethwei rules.
In 2019, the WLC marked history by broadcasting the first Lethwei event internationally. was transmitted live on UFC Fight Pass.
Attracting foreign fighters
From 7 to 12 July 2001, twelve years after Burma changed its name to Myanmar, the first international event took place in Yangon with professional fighters from the United States facing Burmese fighters under full traditional Lethwei rules.The three American kickboxers brought by the IKF were Shannon Ritch, Albert Ramirez and Doug Evans. Ritch faced Ei Htee Kaw, Ramirez faced Saw Thei Myo, and Evans faced openweight Lethwei champion Wan Chai. A revenge match with American and European fighters was cancelled the last minute by Lethwei promoters and the military in 2003.
From 10 to 11 July 2004, the second event headlining foreigners took place with four Japanese fighters fighting against Burmese fighters. They were mixed martial arts fighters Akitoshi Tamura, Yoshitaro Niimi, Takeharu Yamamoto and Naruji Wakasugi. Tamura knocked out Aya Bo Sein in the second round and became the first foreigner to beat a Myanmar Lethwei practitioner in an official match. International matches continued with the exciting Cyrus Washington vs. Tun Tun Min trilogy.
In 2016, after having previously fought to an explosive draw, Dave Leduc and Tun Tun Min rematched at the Air KBZ Aung Lan Championship in Yangon, Myanmar. The rematch was sweetened by an added bonus: ownership of the Lethwei Openweight World Championship Belt. Leduc became the first non-Burmese fighter to win the Lethwei Golden Belt and become Lethwei world champion after defeating Tun Tun Min in the second round.
Following his win, Leduc said in an interview, ″I have so much vision for this sport. I see Lethwei doing the same for Myanmar as what Muay Thai has done for Thailand."
On April 18, 2017, for his second title defense under traditional rules, Dave Leduc faced Turkish Australian challenger Adem Yilmaz at in Tokyo, Japan. This marked the first Lethwei World title fight headlining two non-Burmese in the sport's history and for the occasion, the Ambassador of Myanmar to Japan was present at the event held in the Korakuen Hall.
In popular culture
The Lethwei has been featured in media, including films, television, manga, anime. The combat sport gained worldwide attention after Dave Leduc defeated Tun Tun Min in 2016.Film
Television
Lethwei has been featured in television and documentaries.Television | Episode | Description |
FightWorld | Myanmar: Crossroads | American docu-series on Netflix with Season 1 Episode 3 on Lethwei. |
Spirit of Fight | Season 1 & 2 | Canal+ Myanmar TV Series about Lethwei fighters on Canal+ Zat Lenn channel. |
Le Canal Nouvelles | LCN: Denis Lévesque | :fr:Denis Lévesque|Denis Lévesque and Dave Leduc discuss Lethwei. |
The Joe Rogan Experience | MMA Show Episode #81 | Joe Rogan and Dave Leduc discuss Lethwei. |
World Lethwei Championship | The first Lethwei event to be transmitted live on UFC Fight Pass. |
Manga and Animation
Lethwei has been featured in the popular Japanese manga series Kengan Ashura. In the series, the Burmese Lethwei master named Saw Paing, is so indestructible that an opponent shatters every bone in their hand trying to punch him.Manga or Animation | Character |
Kengan Ashura | Saw Paing |
Traditional gesture
Lekkha moun
The lekkha moun is the traditional gesture performed by Lethwei fighters to challenge their opponents with courage and respect. The lekkha moun is done by clapping 3 times with right palm to the triangle shaped hole formed while bending the left arm. The clapping hand must be in form of a cup, while the left hand must be placed under the right armpit. The lekkha moun is done at the beginning of the lethwei yay and can also be done while fighting.This invitation to fight is inspired from the birds of prey, like the eagle, as they flap their wings when flying and hunting.
Lethwei yay
The Lethwei yay could be described as a fight dance. It is performed before the fight as a way to showcase the fighter's skills and as a victory dance after the fight. The lekkha moun is usually confused with the lethwei yay, but the lekkha moun is done along with the Lethwei yay.Rules
Permitted techniques- Headbutts
- All punches
- All elbow strikes
- All knee strikes
- All kicks
- Extensive clinching
- Sweeps, throws and takedowns
Rounds
Each bout can be booked as a 3, 4 or 5 round fight with 3 minutes per round and a 2-minute break in between rounds. Championship bouts are 5 round fights with 3 minutes per round and a 2-minute break between rounds.
Fighting attire
The Burmese bareknuckle boxing rules prohibits the use of gloves.
- The fighters must only wear tape, gauze and electrical tape on their hands and feet.
- The fighters shall wear only shorts, without a shirt or shoes.
- The fighters must wear a groin protector.
- The fighters must wear a gum shield.
Referee
One referee oversees the fight. The referee has the power to:
- End the fight if he considers one fighter to be significantly outclassed by his opponent.
- Stop the fight and refer to the doctor if a fighter is heavily wounded.
- Warn the fighters. He makes sure the fight proceeds fairly and in compliance with the rules.
Traditional rules
At the end of the match, in the eventually that there is no knockout or stoppage, if the two fighters are still standing, even if one fighter dominated the fight, the match is declared a draw. Fighters can win by incapacitating their rivals in a few different ways.
- The knockout is when the opponent falls on the floors, leans unconscious or if the fighter is unable to stand up or defend himself within 20 seconds.
- When 3 counts are performed in a single round, the fight is terminated and scored as knockout.
- When 4 counts are performed during the entire duration of the fight, the match is terminated and scored as knockout.
- The technical knockout is when the fighter forfeits, has an injury or is in a position that can damage or severely harm him if the fight continues. The ring doctor is consulted and is the one making that decision.
- Most Lethwei promotions in Myanmar
- Annual Myanmar Lethwei World Championship
- Air KBZ Aung Lan Championship
- International Lethwei Federation Japan
- Challenge fights
- Flagship Tournaments
- Festivals & celebrations
Golden Belt
There is only one Golden Belt champion for each weight categories, with the Openweight class champion being considered the strongest fighter in Myanmar. The Openweight Champion is the equivalent of being pound-for-pound champion in the world of lethwei.
Win Zin Oo, Lethwei coach and gym owner explains:
Injury time-out
- If a knockout or injury occurs, the fighter can take a special 2 minute time-out to recover. After the time-out the fighter can choose whether he wishes to continue the bout or not. Each fighter may only do so once during the fight and cannot be used in the fifth round.
- The time-out can't be used in the fifth round.
- The use of the time-out is considered as 1 count.
Modern rules
Promotions that use tournament rules
- World Lethwei Championship
- Annual Golden Belt Championship
The knockout is still highly desired under this ruleset, but in the event that a bout goes the distance, judges will present a decision. The 3 judges score the bout based on aggression, number of significant strikes per round, damage and blood drawn. Fighters have a maximum of 3 knockdowns per round and 4 knockdowns in the entire fight before the fight is ruled a knockout.
Techniques
Aside from punches, kicks, elbows and knee attacks, Burmese fighters also make use of head-butts, raking knuckle strikes and take downs.Headbutt (''Gowl Tite'')
Punching (''Let Thee'')
Elbow (''Tel Daung'')
The elbow can be used in several ways as a striking weapon: horizontal, diagonal-upwards, diagonal-downwards, uppercut, downward, backward-spinning and flying. They can be used as either a finishing move or as a way to cut the opponent's eyebrow to draw blood.English | Burmese | Romanization | |
Horizontal Elbow | ဝိုက်တံတောင် | Wide Tel Daung | |
Upward Elbow | ပင့်တံတောင် | Pint Tel Daung | |
Downward Elbow | ထောင်းတံတောင် | Htoung Tel Daung | |
Jumping Downward Elbow | တံတောင် ခုန်ထောင်း | Tel Daung Khone Htoung | |
Elbow Thrust | ထိုးတံတောင် | Htoe Tel Daung | |
Reverse Horizontal Elbow | တွက်တံတောင် | Twet Tel Daung | |
Flying Elbow | တံတောင်ပျံ | Tel Daung Pyan | |
Spinning Elbow | ပတ်တံတောင် / ခါးလှည့်တံတောင် | Pat Tel Daung / Khar Hlet Tel Daung |
Elbows can be used to great effect as blocks or defenses against, for example, spring knees, side body knees, body kicks or punches. When well connected, an elbow strike can cause serious damage to the opponent, including cuts or even a knockout.
Kicking (''Kan'')
Knee (''Doo'')
Foot-thrust
The foot-thrust is one of the techniques in Lethwei. It is used as a defensive technique to control distance or block attacks and as a way to set up attack. Foot-thrusts should be thrown quickly but with enough force to knock an opponent off balance.English | Burmese | Romanization | |
Push Kick | နင်းခြေ / တားခြေ | Nin Chay / Tar Chay | |
Toe Push Kick | ခြေဦးထိုးကန် | Chay Oo Htoe Kan | |
Jumping Push Kick | ခုန်ဆောင့်ကန် | Khone Sount Kan |
Note - The Myanglish spelling and phonetics based spelling are two different things. The words used are phonetics based words which are more friendly and easy to pronounce for non-Myanmar speaking people. The phonetics wording is provided by Liger Paing from United Myanmar Bando Nation.