The Greatest Lethwei Fighters of All Time

A short history of Lethwei

Lethwei belongs to thaing, the traditional martial arts of Myanmar, which researchers trace to the Pagan kingdom of the 12th century, and temple carvings at Bagan suggest the sport may be a thousand years old. In old matches fighters wrapped their hands in hemp or gauze, fought in sand pits rather than rings, and kept going until one was knocked out or could not continue. Champions would step into the ring and call out open challenges.

The sport was suppressed under British colonial rule and revived under General Ne Win's government, and it remains a fixture of festivals such as Thingyan. Kyar Ba Nyein, who boxed at the 1952 Olympics, helped modernize it by introducing new rules and bringing fighters from the Mon and Karen states to compete in Mandalay and Yangon. In 1996 the Myanmar Traditional Lethwei Federation created tournament rules for the Golden Belt Championship in Yangon, removing the injury time-out and adding judges so that every bout would have a winner.

Foreign fighters began arriving in July 2001, when three American professionals lost to Burmese opponents in Yangon. In 2004 Japan's Akitoshi Tamura became the first foreigner to beat a Myanmar Lethwei fighter in an official match, and in 2015 ONE Championship staged its first Lethwei bout, inside a cage in Yangon.

Canadian fighter Dave Leduc, from Gatineau, Quebec, beat champion Tun Tun Min in 2016 to become the first non-Burmese winner of the Lethwei Golden Belt, and international coverage of the sport grew after his arrival. The World Lethwei Championship held its first event in 2017, and in 2019 its seventh card was broadcast live on UFC Fight Pass. Because of the headbutts and bare knuckles, Lethwei is still illegal in most countries outside Myanmar.

• ✦Fighters wear no gloves; hands and feet are wrapped only in tape and gauze.
• ✦Punches, kicks, knees, elbows and headbutts are all legal, along with clinching, sweeps and throws.
• ✦Under traditional rules only a knockout wins; if both fighters finish standing, the bout is a draw.
• ✦Traditional rules give each fighter one two-minute injury time-out, which cannot be used in the fifth round.
• ✦Tournament rules add three judges, who score aggression, damage, blood drawn and significant strikes.
• ✦Championship bouts are five three-minute rounds with two-minute breaks.