Everything You Need To Know About The Brutal Sport Of Lethwei

The sport of lethwei is considered the most brutal combat sport in the world. Whilst there are rules and it is not a complete free-for-all, the sport is notorious for its brutal knockouts and headbutts. Lethwei is thought to be well over 1000 years old and originates from Myanmar (modern-day Burma). The sport is still not really practiced outside of Myanmar since it is extremely violent and other countries already have similar sports such as western boxing with more stringent rules.

It is normal for fighters to wear hand wraps without gloves. In past generations of fighters, it was quite normal not to wear any groin or mouthguards, with fights only being ended in knockout or quitting.

Despite lethwei being an incredibly brutal and violent sport, it should be noted that this is not the case for Burmese culture. Lethwei fighters and people of Myanmar in general are known for being kind and gentle outside of the ring. There are traditions both inside and outside of the ring to show respect towards an opponent. This is quite different from western combat sports where practitioners will often insult each other in order to hype fights and sell more tickets.

The Rules Of Lethwei

Lethwei is pretty much bare knuckle boxing under muay thai rules with the addition of headbutts. These are the technical rules with clinches, knees, kicks, sweeps, elbows, and punches all being 100% legal.

Traditional lethwei bouts are either 3, 4 or 5 rounds long. If there has not been a knockout or retirement during these set rounds, then the fight is considered to be a draw regardless of dominance. However, due to the fact lethwei is bare-knuckle thai boxing mixed with headbutts, getting past the 5th round is quite an achievement even if you’ve taken a beating.

Round length is typically 3 minutes long with a 2 minute break between each round.

Also similarly to most striking formats, the referee has the power to stop the bout if he feels one fighter is significantly beating the other and also if there is a severe injury.

Rules Surrounding Knockouts

When a fighter is knocked down in a round, they have 20 seconds to get back up and show that they are ready to continue.

If you are knocked down 3 times in a single round this will be considered a knockout.

If you are knocked down 4 times during the duration of a fight, this will be considered a knockout.

Injury Timeouts

A special injury timeout can be used at any time during the fight except the 5th round. This injury timeout is counted as 1 knockdown against you.

During the injury timeout, you have 2 minutes to recover. If the fighter is not ready after these 2 minutes then the bout will be ended as a loss for the injured fighter.

Modern Ruleset

Whilst lethwei is still not at all popular outside of Myanmar, it has gained international recognition. The brutal nature of the sport is purer than other disciplines such as western boxing and karate. Therefore the sport appeals to those who want to see something closer to “real” fighting.

The WLC is pretty much the only organization that streams lethwei to an international audience.

Under WLC unified rules, lethwei bouts are only 3 rounds long and have a panel of judges to pick a winner if there is no knockout. In addition to this, there are no injury timeouts and doctors are also allowed to stop a fight without the consent of a fighter.

This is pretty much standard for any sport that becomes mainstream. Even though lethwei is still brutal, the organizations that run these tournaments cannot risk serious death or injury that would bury their company. Although the fighters may still want the older rules, they must be changed to suit the viewers.

Golden Belt & Openweight Category

The golden belt is the most prestigious prize in traditional lethwei. Much like other striking sports, a single belt is held by the best fighter in each weight category. Weight categories for men in lethwei vary from 51kg to 83kg. The weight limit of 83kg may not seem like a lot, but people from Myanmar are generally smaller than westerners, so this is still very big for a lean fighter.

Lethwei differs from other striking sports in that there is also an open weight category. Golden belt fighters from various weight categories will compete against each other in the open weight division to discover who is the best lethwei fighter in Myanmar.

How Dangerous Is Lethwei?

Lethwei is extremely dangerous. It would be difficult to find an unarmed martial art that is more dangerous than lethwei. Since Myanmar is an undeveloped country with fewer health and safety laws than the western world, it is difficult to say for certain just how dangerous lethwei is.

However, if we judge lethwei compared to bare knuckle boxing, we can already see that there will be several injuries to hands, legs, knees, elbows, and the face.

This is even before we consider damage from headbutts. Many athletes such as NFL players, rugby players, and even soccer players have successfully sued organizations due to concussion injuries. There is no doubt that lethwei has its fair share of concussions from either delivering or receiving a headbutt.

Concussion science is still relatively young, so we will only know in the future what the true impact of headbutting a hard surface does to your brain long after you retire.

Lethwei Techniques

Lethwei has a lot of standard strikes seen in other combat sports and is especially similar to muay thai. It does however have some differences which are mostly various headbutts.

Punches

• Uppercut
• Jab
• Overhand
• Spinning Back Fist
• Superman Punch
• Hook
• Cross

Headbutts

• Flying headbutt
• Headbutt thrust
• Upwards headbutt
• Headbutt from clinch
• Downwards headbutt

Kicks

• Roundhouse
• Low Kick
• Front Kick
• High Kick
• Spinning Heel Kick
• Hook Kick
• Side Kick
• Question Mark Kick

Elbows

• Spinning back elbow
• Downwards elbow
• Upwards elbow
• Horizontal elbow
• Flying Elbow

Knees

• Straight knee
• Flying knee
• Side knee
• Jumping knee
• Spear knee

Is Lethwei Better Than Muay Thai?

This is a very difficult comparison to make. Since the rulesets are slightly different, it would be similar to comparing kickboxing to western boxing.

It is likely that a lethwei fighter could hold their own against a muay thai fighter since muay thai does not really have many techniques that are absent in lethwei. However, it is highly unlikely that a muay thai fighter would beat a lethwei fighter under lethwei rules. This is because the headbutt is a gigantic threat. If you have not trained the intricacies of when to throw or defend against headbutts, it’s likely you will get hit. Getting hit by a headbutt can often mean the end of a fight due to knockout.

Dave LeDuc has beaten several muay thai fighters under muay thai rules, but he is an exceptionally talented fighter. If he were to fight muay thai champions in their own ruleset it is likely he would lose. Similarly, if they were to fight LeDuc in lethwei rules then there is no doubt they would be beaten by him.

Lethwei Knockouts

As you would expect given the ruleset of a sport where wins are only given by way of knockout. There really are A LOT of knockouts in lethwei. In general around 50% of fights end in a draw, whereas the other 50% are ended by a knockout.

Rise In Popularity

The rise in popularity of lethwei outside of Asia is largely thanks to Dave LeDuc. Shown by the graph below, the huge spike in interest sometime in late 2019 coincided with his appearance on the Joe Rogan Podcast. LeDuc says it is common for people to train martial arts for decades without hearing about lethwei, simply because it was never popular outside of Myanmar.

The graph does show that lethwei still has a long way to go, but at least is increasing in popularity. With organizations such as WLC providing shows on UFC fightpass to an international audience, there is no doubt it will become more popular. With that being said, lethwei separates itself from other combat sports by having a brutal set of rules. If these rules are changed too much then it will become indistinguishable from thai boxing. It will be a challenge for lethwei to keep its violent style whilst trying to gain mass appeal worldwide.