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| Also known as | Burmese boxing, Burmese bareknuckle fighting, The Art of 9 Limbs | ||||||||||||
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| Focus | Striking | ||||||||||||
| Hardness | Full-contact | ||||||||||||
| Country of origin | Myanmar | ||||||||||||
| Famous practitioners | List of Lethwei fighters | ||||||||||||
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Lethwei (Burmese:လက်ဝှေ့;IPA:[lɛʔ.ʍḛ]) orBurmese boxing is afull contact combat sport originating fromMyanmar and is regarded as one of the most brutal martial arts in the world.[1][2] Lethwei fighters are allowed to use stand-up striking techniques such as kicks, knees, elbows and punches, and the use ofheadbutts is also permitted.[3] Fighters compete bareknuckle, wrapping their hands with only tape and gauze.[4][5] Disallowed in most combat sports, headbutts are important weapons in a Lethwei fighter's arsenal, giving Lethwei its name of the "Art of nine limbs".[6][7][8] This, combined with its bareknuckle nature, gave Lethwei a reputation for being one of the bloodiest and most violent martial arts.[9][10] Lethwei is the last remaining sport in the world that allows headbutts.[11] Although popular throughout Myanmar, Lethwei has been primarily and historically associated with theKaren people of theKayin State; the vast majority of competitive Lethwei fighters are ethnolinguistically ofKaren descent.[12][13][5]
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The traditional martial arts of Myanmar are regrouped under a term called "thaing", which includesbando,banshay,naban, shan gyi and Lethwei. According to researchers, thaing can be traced in its earliest form to the 12th century of thePagan Kingdom dynasty.[14]
InBagan, it exists some carvings on temples and pagodas in the central Myanmar plains, which appear to show pairs of men locked in combat, suggesting the sport is potentially over a 1,000 years old.[15]
In ancient times, matches were held for entertainment and were popular with every stratum of society. Participation was opened to any male, whether noble or commoner. At that time, matches took place in sand pits instead of rings.[16] 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.[17]
Lethwei went through many years of suppression during the British colonial rule of Burma. The sport was revived under GeneralNe Win's nationalistic government.[18] Unlike Muay Thai, in Lethwei, punches are generally favoured over kicks because of their ability to draw blood more easily.[19] Traditional matches include theFlagship Tournament, which are still fought throughout Myanmar, especially during holidays or celebration festivals likeThingyan.[20][21] In rural areas, having a skilled child fighter has been a way of escaping poverty.[22]
In modern times, the sport is kept alive inLower Burma inMon State andKaren State where matches are held for events such as New Year's celebrations.[23]
Kyar Ba Nyein, who participated inboxing at the 1952 Summer Olympics, pioneered modern Lethwei by setting in place modern rules and regulations.[24] He travelled aroundMyanmar, especially theMon andKaren states, where Lethwei is more actively practiced. After training with some of the fighters, Kyar Ba Nyein brought some toMandalay andYangon to compete in matches.[25]
In 1996, theMyanmar Traditional Lethwei Federation (MTLF), a branch of theMyanmar's Ministry of Health and Sports, added themodern Lethwei rules for the occasion of theGolden Belt Championship inYangon.[26][27][28] The bouts, along with the undercard fights, were organized by the Ministry of Sport, Myanmar Traditional Lethwei Federation and KSM group. This marked a big addition to the art of Lethwei and potentially would make Burmese boxing more marketable internationally.[29]
On 18 July 2015,ONE Championship held the first Lethwei fight in its history inside a cage at the occasion ofONE Championship: Kingdom of Warriors inYangon, Myanmar.[30] The fight showcasedBurmese fighters Phyan Thway and Soe Htet Oo in adark match and the result was a draw according to thetraditional Lethwei rules.[31]
In 2017,ONE Championship andWorld Lethwei Championship officially entered into a partnership to share athletes to fight in each other's organization.[32][33] On June 30, 2017, ONE Championship held a Lethwei match atONE Championship: Light of a Nation betweenThway Thit Win Hlaing and Soe Htet Oo. Thway Thit Win Hlaing would end up winning a decision according toWLC point system.[34]
In 2016, Myanmar's first international Lethwei promotion calledWorld Lethwei Championship (WLC) launched its events using thetournament Lethwei rules.[35][36]
In 2019, theWLC marked history by broadcastingWLC 7: Mighty Warriors, the first Lethwei event, internationally live onUFC Fight Pass.[37]
From 7 to 12 July 2001, twelve years afterBurma changed its name toMyanmar, the first international event took place in Yangon with professional fighters from theUnited States facing Burmese fighters under full traditional Lethwei rules. The delegation of three American fighters brought by theIKF wereShannon Ritch, Albert Ramirez andDoug Evans. Ritch faced Ei Htee Kaw, Ramirez faced Saw Thei Myo, and Evans faced openweight Lethwei championWan Chai. All three Americans lost to the Burmese. A revenge match with American and European fighters was cancelled the last minute by Lethwei promoters and the military in 2002.
From 10 to 11 July 2004, the second event headlining foreigners took place with four Japanese fighters fighting against Burmese fighters. They weremixed martial arts fightersAkitoshi 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 excitingCyrus Washington vs. Tun Tun Min trilogy.
In 2016, after having previously fought to an explosive draw,Dave Leduc andTun Tun Min rematched at theAir KBZ Aung Lan Championship in Yangon, Myanmar. The rematch was sweetened by an added bonus: ownership of the Lethwei Openweight World Championship Belt.[38] 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 third round.[39][40]
Following his title defence, 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."[41]
On 18 April 2017, for his second title defense under traditional rules,[42]Dave Leduc facedTurkish Australian challenger Adem Yilmaz atLethwei in Japan 3: Grit inTokyo,Japan.[43][41] This marked the first Lethwei World title fight headlining two non-Burmese in the sport's history and for the occasion, the Ambassador ofMyanmar to Japan was present at the event held in theKorakuen Hall.[44]
Due to the violent ruleset, Lethwei is difficult to sanction and is illegal in most countries outside of Myanmar.[45] Even though headbutts are allowed in Lethwei, they are banned from most other combat sports including mixed martial arts, kickboxing, and Muay Thai.[46] As of 2022, Myanmar Lethwei is only legal in the following countries:Myanmar,Japan,Singapore,Slovakia,Austria,Thailand,Taiwan,England,United States (only the state ofWyoming),New Zealand andPoland.[47][48] TheWorld Lethwei Federation has the responsibility to sanction and support the growth of Lethwei worldwide outside ofMyanmar.[49]
Lethwei has been featured in variety of popular culture and massmedia, including written works, live-action film and television and animation in Myanmar and occasionally abroad. In 2016, the sport gained worldwide attention afterDave Leduc defeatedTun Tun Min, aGolden Belt champion.[50] The same year,Born Warriors released a series of documentaries shot throughout Myanmar. In 2018,Frank Grillo travelled to Myanmar and featured Lethwei in theNetflix documentaryFightWorld.[51] In 2019, Lethwei was featured inThe Joe Rogan Experience podcast byJoe Rogan with Leduc as guest.[52][53] The sport has also been featured in the popularJapanesemanga seriesKengan Ashura.[54] In the series, theBurmese Lethwei master namedSaw Paing, is so indestructible that an opponent shatters every bone in their hand trying to punch him.[55]
Thelekkha 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 theLethwei 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.
TheLethwei yay could be described as afight 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.[56]
Before modernisation, especially in colonial times, the pre-fight dance was more commonly referred to as han yay (ဟန်ရေး). Performed in accordance with the tempo of the traditional orchestra (ဆိုင်း), it incorporated a much more elaborate dance and show of skills. Boastful poetry was sometimes recited along with the dance.[57]
Permitted techniques
The use of the feet, hands, knees, elbows and head is permitted.
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 are required to apply the wrapping in front of the fight officials, who will endorse the wraps.
Referee
One referee oversees the fight. The referee has the power to:
The traditional rules, also known asyoe yar rules, which comes from theBurmeseMyanma yoe yar Latway, which meansMyanmar traditional boxing.[58] Traditional matches are still fought throughout Myanmar, especially during festivals or celebrations likeThingyan.[20] Traditional Lethwei is notorious for not having a scoring system and for its controversial rule ofknock-out only to win.
At the end of the match, in the eventuality 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.
Promotions that use traditional rules
The traditionalLethwei Golden Belt is regarded as the highest and most prestigious award for Lethwei fighters.[61][62] Not to be confused with the annualGolden Belt Championship, composed mostly of younger rising talent and using thetournament rules point system.[26][28]
There is only oneGolden Belt champion for each weight categories, with the openweight class champion being considered the strongest fighter in Myanmar.[63] The openweight Golden Belt champion is the equivalent of being pound-for-pound champion in the world of Lethwei.[64]
In 1996, theMyanmar Traditional Lethwei Federation created the tournament ruleset for the inaugural Golden Belt Championship tournament.[58] The two-minute injury timeout was removed and judges were added ringside to determine a winner in the event there was no knockout. This modified ruleset prevents the outcome of a draw and helped choose a winner to advance in the tournament. Myanmar's first international promotion, theWorld Lethwei Championship, opted for this ruleset in order to follow international safety regulations and have clear winners.[28]
Judging criteria
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 should score the bout based on:
Fighters have a maximum of 3 knockdowns per round and 4 knockdowns in the entire fight before the fight is ruled a knockout.
Aside from punches, kicks, elbows and knee attacks, Burmese fighters also make use of head-butts, raking knuckle strikes and take downs.
| English | Burmese | Romanization | IPA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thrusting/Forward Headbutt | ထိုးခေါင်းတိုက် | Htoe Gowl Tite | |
| Upward Headbutt | ခေါင်းပင့်တိုက် | Gowl Pint Tite | |
| Side Headbutt | ခေါင်းရိုက် | Gowl yite | |
| Clinching Headbutt | ချုပ်ခေါင်းရိုက် | Choke Gowl Yite | |
| Flying/Diving Headbutt | ခုန်ခေါင်းတိုက် | Khnoe Gowl Tite | |
| Rushing Headbutt | ခေါင်းဆောင့်တိုက် | Gowl Sount Tite | |
| Downward Headbutt | ခေါင်းစိုက်တိုက် | Gowl Site Tite |
| English | Burmese | Romanization | IPA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jab | ထောက်လက်သီး | Htouk Let Thee | |
| Cross | ဖြောင့်လက်သီး | Fyount Let Thee | |
| Uppercut | ပင့်လက်သီး | Pint Let Thee | |
| Hook | ဝိုက်လက်သီး | Wide Let Thee | |
| Overhand (boxing) | စိုက်လက်သီး | Site Let Thee | |
| Backfist | တွက်လက်သီး | Twet Let Thee | |
| Spinning Backfist | လက်ပြန်ရိုက် | Let Pyan Yite | |
| Hammer fist | ပင့်လက်သီး | Pint Let Thee | |
| Superman punch | လက်သီးပျံ / ခုန်ထိုး လက်သီး | Let Thee Pyan / Khone Htoe Let Thee |
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 | IPA |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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.
| English | Burmese | Romanization | IPA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roundhouse Kick | ခြေဝိုက်ကန် / ဝိုက်ခတ် | Chay Wide Kan / Wide Khat | |
| Spinning back Kick | နောက်ပေါက်ကန် | Nout Pouk Kan | |
| Outside low kick | အပြင်ခတ် | Al Pyin Khat | |
| Inside low kick | အတွင်းခတ် | Al Twin Khat | |
| Hook kick | ချိတ်ကန် | Chate Kan | |
| Side kick | ခြေစောင်းကန် | Chay zoung Kan | |
| Axe Kick | ခုတ်ကန် / ပုဆိန်ပေါက်ကန် | Khote Kan / Pal Sain Pouk Kan | |
| Jump round Kick | ခုန်ဝိုက်ခတ် | Khone Wide Kan | |
| Step-Up Kick | ပေါင်နင်းကန် | Pound Nin Kan |
| English | Burmese | Romanization | IPA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Straight Knee Strike | တဲ့ထိုးဒူး | Delt Htoe Doo | |
| Spear Knee | လှံစိုက်ဒူ | Hlan Site Doo | |
| Side Knee Strike | ဝိုက်ဒူး | Wide Doo | |
| Upward Knee | ပင့်ဒူး | Pint Doo | |
| Downward Knee | ခုတ်ဒူး | Khote Doo | |
| Knee Slap | ရိုက်ဒူး | Yite Doo | |
| Double Flying Knee / Elephant Tusks flying Knee | စုံဒူးပျံ / ဆင်စွယ်ဒူးပျံ | Sone Doo Pyan / Sin Swal Doo Pyan | |
| Jumping Knee | ခုန်ဒူး | Khone Doo | |
| Step-Up Knee Strike | ပေါင်နင်းဒူး | Pound Nin Doo |
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 | IPA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Push Kick | နင်းခြေ / တားခြေ | Nin Chay / Tar Chay | |
| Toe Push Kick | ခြေဦးထိုးကန် | Chay Oo Htoe Kan | |
| Jumping Push Kick | ခုန်ဆောင့်ကန် | Khone Sount Kan |
Note - TheMyanglish 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 fromUnited Myanmar Bando Nation.
| Weight class name | Upper limit | Gender | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| inpounds (lb) | inkilograms (kg) | instone (st) | ||
| Light flyweight | 105 | 48 | 7.6 | Female |
| Flyweight | 112 | 51 | 8 | Male / female |
| Bantamweight | 119 | 54 | 8.5 | Male / female |
| Featherweight | 126 | 57 | 9 | Male / female |
| Lightweight | 132 | 60 | 9.5 | Male / female |
| Light welterweight | 140 | 63.5 | 10 | Male / female |
| Welterweight | 148 | 67 | 10.5 | Male |
| Light middleweight | 157 | 71 | 11.1 | Male |
| Middleweight | 165 | 75 | 11.8 | Male |
| Super middleweight | 174 | 79 | 12.4 | Male |
| Cruiserweight | 183 | 83 | 13 | Male |
Lethwei is the one of the most aggressive and brutal martial arts in the world
Burmese bare knuckle boxing, considered the world's most brutal sport
Lethwei is considered by some to be the world's most brutal martial art
At a Burmese boxing match, a champion will jump into the ring and dance about, smacking his chest and arms and cracking his fingers, challenging all comers.
Pictures of Phyan Thway and Soe Htet Oo at Kingdom of Warriors
ONE Championship has promoted lethwei fights in the past
The Openweight Lethwei World Championship is one of the most prestigious titles in combat sports.
| General | |
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| Champions and pioneers | |
| Promotions | |
| Governing bodies | |
| See also | |
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