Lethwei
လက်ဝှေ့A Burmese striking sport without gloves in which headbutts, elbows, knees and throws are allowed. Traditional rules know only victory by knockout, otherwise it is a draw.
Quick Facts
MyanmarCharacter & Origin
Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
Comparisons
Catalogs & Databases for Lethwei
About Lethwei
Lethwei is a Burmese striking sport, one of the traditional Burmese martial arts known collectively as thaing. Sources place the origin of thaing in the Pagan Kingdom, but differently, the UNESCO ICM centre in the 8th century and the New Straits Times in the 9th century. In the encyclopedia Martial Arts of the World, Green states that the sport form of lethwei has existed since at least the 18th century. Under British colonial rule lethwei was suppressed. According to the Black Belt magazine website it revived after the Second World War, and Green writes of its restoration in Yangon in the nineteen-seventies and of a renaissance in the nineteen-nineties. We have not found a founder or a year of origin in the sources.
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Fighting is without gloves, the hands are protected only by thin gauze wraps, and according to ONE Championship fighters wear a mouthguard and groin protector. Strikes, kicks, elbows, knees, clinch, sweeps, throws and headbutts are allowed, hence the nickname art of nine limbs. According to ONE Championship, headbutts are banned in Muay Thai, kickboxing and MMA. Under the traditional rules, according to the Black Belt magazine website, victory comes only by knockout, technical knockout or doctor's stoppage, and according to ONE Championship a bout without a knockout ends in a draw. According to the English Wikipedia, in 1996 the national federation, today the Myanmar Lethwei Federation, added modern rules for the Golden Belt tournament, abolishing the two-minute injury time-out and introducing scoring judges. World Lethwei Championship (since 2016) adopted these rules, according to it, and holds bouts of 3 to 5 rounds of 3 minutes. Bouts are accompanied by a traditional orchestra. We have not found a system of technical grades, the belts in lethwei are champion titles. According to Wikipedia, outside Myanmar it was permitted in only a few countries as of 2022.
History
Lethwei belongs among the traditional Burmese martial arts known collectively as thaing. Sources place the origin of thaing in the Pagan Kingdom, but differently, the UNESCO ICM centre in the 8th century and the New Straits Times in the 9th century. Win Zin Oo, founder of the Yangon club Thut Ti and former vice-chairman of the Myanmar Lethwei Federation, judges from the reliefs on the temples in Bagan, according to AFP from 2015, that the sport is more than a thousand years old. Green states that the sport form of lethwei has existed since at least the 18th century. We have not found a founder or a year of origin in the sources.
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According to Green, bouts were traditionally held at festivals and in sand pits, and among the Kachin fighters' hands were traditionally wrapped in hemp cloth in which deceased relatives were wrapped. Under British colonial rule lethwei was suppressed. According to the Black Belt magazine website it revived after the Second World War and declined again after the army seized power in 1962. Green writes of its restoration in Yangon in the nineteen-seventies and of a renaissance in the nineteen-nineties. According to the agency Reuters, the unification of lethwei across the country began in the nineteen-fifties, and Olympedia names Kyar Ba Nyein, a boxer at the 1952 Olympic Games, as a pioneer of the modern rules. According to the English Wikipedia, in 1996 the national federation, today the Myanmar Lethwei Federation, added modern rules for the Golden Belt tournament and abolished the two-minute injury time-out.
How it differs
Lethwei is compared with Muay Thai. The International Centre for Martial Arts under the auspices of UNESCO (ICM) describes it as Burmese kickboxing similar to Muay Thai and names as the key difference that fighters do not wear gloves and only wrap their hands. The AFP agency gives headbutts as a further difference. Almost all unarmed techniques are allowed, including kicks, punches, headbutts, knees and elbows. Black Belt magazine, however, points out that other Southeast Asian bare-knuckle arts used the same bodily weapons. Traditional and modern rules differ. According to the Black Belt magazine website, under traditional rules no judge scores and a win comes only by knockout, technical knockout or doctor's stoppage. ONE Championship states that a bout without a knockout ends in a draw. Black Belt explains this by saying that lethwei was never incorporated into the international martial arts community and preserved old customs. The modern professional system has, according to Reuters, five rounds, and a draw without a knockout was, according to teacher Win Zin Oo, meant to limit permanent injuries. According to Black Belt, in the countryside fighters are not weighed and referees pair them before the bout, while in cities promoters build cards according to record and weight.
Technique
The rules allow strikes, kicks, elbows, knees, clinch, sweeps, throws and takedowns, and headbutts besides. Hence the nickname art of nine limbs, which ONE Championship sets beside the art of eight limbs, as Muay Thai is called. In Muay Thai, kickboxing and MMA headbutts are banned, according to ONE. ONE distinguishes three forms of the headbutt (hkaung tike): from the clinch (choke hkaung tike), on the run-in (hkaung sount tike) and flying (hkun hkaung tike). According to the English Wikipedia, unlike Muay Thai, lethwei favours hand strikes over kicks, because they more easily cause bleeding.
Training
An Al Jazeera photo report from 2023 shows, in the Power Punch gym in Yangon, a fighter training straight punches into three stacked tyres. Before a bout the trainer stretches the fighter's leg, and fighters stretch and massage their muscles. After a bout, according to one of them, trainers go over how they did and correct mistakes. According to the same report, some fighters have only a few weeks between bouts to heal injuries.
Ranks and progression
We have not found a system of technical grades, belts or examinations for practitioners at the Myanmar Lethwei Federation or the World Lethwei Federation. Belts in lethwei are champions' titles. According to English Wikipedia, the highest and most prestigious award is the traditional Golden Belt, with only one holder in each weight category, and the holder in the open weight class is considered the strongest fighter in Myanmar. It is not to be confused with the annual Golden Belt Championship tournament, where mainly younger talents compete. According to Wikipedia, the World Lethwei Federation introduced its first red belt for a world title bout on 8 July 2023. Green states in the encyclopedia Martial Arts of the World that sport lethwei has rankings from youth to professional classes and a nationwide governing body.
Who it suits
According to the agency AFP, children around 10 years old also fought at a tournament in Karen State in 2023, and an AFP report from 2015 mentions boys from the age of 10 at tournaments. Women compete too. According to AFP from 2015, women made up roughly half of the regular members of the Yangon club Thut Ti, although traditionally few women fought because of gender norms. At a tournament in Hlaingbwe in 2023, a sixteen-year-old female fighter boxed five rounds against a taller and heavier Thai opponent, with a draw as the result. We have not found a system of technical grades or belts for practitioners.
Competition
According to ONE Championship, under the traditional rules victory comes only by knockout, otherwise the bout is a draw, and the Black Belt magazine website also lists technical knockout and doctor's stoppage. The English Wikipedia calls these rules yoe yar and states that a knockout occurs when a fighter cannot continue for 20 seconds, and that three counts in one round or four in the whole bout end the bout. According to it, the injury time-out cannot be used in the fifth round, and ONE Championship also describes a two-minute recovery break after a knockout. Green states that sport bouts have four rounds and judges. According to the English Wikipedia, World Lethwei Championship holds bouts of 3, 4 or 5 rounds of 3 minutes with two-minute breaks, and title bouts have 5 rounds. According to the same Wikipedia, it adopted the rules of the 1996 Golden Belt tournament, in which judges at the table score the rounds and the injury time-out is abolished. According to ONE Championship, judges announce the winner when no knockout comes.
Gear
Fighters compete without gloves. According to AFP, only thin gauze wraps around calloused knuckles protect the fists. According to English Wikipedia, fighters wrap their hands before the approving officials. According to ONE Championship, they wear a mouthguard and groin protector. According to Wikipedia, they enter in shorts only, without shirt or shoes.
Philosophy
According to Reuters, lethwei is one of four Burmese martial arts known collectively as thaing, besides naban wrestling, bando and banshay weapons art. According to Black Belt, in olden times Burmese youth were taught it as military conditioning, a test of adulthood, popular entertainment and a way of settling disputes. Villagers, per the same source, value it as a means of spiritual and physical growth of young people, and bouts are part of festivals. Before every bout, according to Reuters, fighters perform a ritual dance that the agency transcribes as lat kha maung, and fighting follows the rhythm of traditional Burmese music. The cymbals of the hsaing waing orchestra track, according to Al Jazeera, the intensity of the fight.
Today
According to English Wikipedia, World Lethwei Championship (WLC) was founded in 2016 as the first international promotion organization in Myanmar, in 2017 ONE Championship entered into a partnership with it, and outside Myanmar lethwei is sanctioned by the World Lethwei Federation. As of 2022, lethwei was, according to Wikipedia, permitted in only a few countries. The WLC event Mighty Warriors on 22 February 2019 in Mandalay was, according to the announcement, to be shown worldwide for the first time on UFC Fight Pass. Lethwei belongs to the family of Southeast Asian kickboxing. According to English Wikipedia, bare-handed exhibition bouts between Thailand and Myanmar have been held since 1986 during the Songkran festival. Dave Leduc, whom Wikipedia describes as a Canadian-Burmese fighter, first came to Thailand to train Muay Thai in 2013 according to Vice, and according to Wikipedia he became the first non-Burmese holder of the Golden Belt in 2016. According to AFP, lethwei survived in the border states of Karen and Mon, where bouts are held at festivals ranging from monks' funerals to New Year celebrations.
Did you know
Until the end of the reign of the last Burmese king at the end of the nineteenth century, the best fighters were, according to Black Belt magazine, appointed royal boxers and officially registered. After the British invasion in 1885 lethwei declined into entertainment for colonial officials and wealthy merchants, and laws allowed many fighters to be arrested as repeat offenders. According to Reuters, champions could traditionally issue open challenges, and anyone could fight. Kyar Ba Nyein, who formalized the modern rules, competed according to Olympedia at the 1952 Olympic Games in the featherweight division and was also a licensed boxing referee, a painter and a Burmese draughts champion. At the Pantanaw tournament, about which Al Jazeera wrote in November 2023, admission cost 7,000 kyats, about 2 dollars, and the two fighters in one bout, which ended in a draw, each received 40,000 kyats. Bouts ran from noon to 5 p.m. so that the fighters could get home before the nighttime curfew introduced after the coup.
Frequently asked questions
What is lethwei?
Lethwei is a Burmese striking sport and one of the four traditional Burmese martial arts called thaing. Al Jazeera calls it the national sport of Myanmar and the art of nine limbs, because besides fists, feet, elbows and knees, attacks with the head are also allowed.
What is the difference between lethwei and Muay Thai?
In lethwei fighters fight without gloves, only with hands wrapped in gauze, and headbutts are allowed, which Muay Thai bans. Under traditional rules, moreover, nobody scores points and a fight without a knockout ends in a draw.
Why is lethwei fought without gloves?
Green says that tradition plays a role and that Muay Thai switched to boxing gloves in the nineteen-thirties, while lethwei kept hand wraps. The Black Belt magazine website explains the preservation of old customs by saying that lethwei was never incorporated into the international martial arts community.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.