Every time someone asks me to give them a list of the best lethwei fights or a list of my personal favorites I freeze.

Not because I can't come up with one, but because images of grainy YouTube or Facebook videos that aren’t necessarily the best come to mind. Fights that have happened this year that I can't recover because they have been deleted. That one brilliant moment of Natkhat Aung or the incredible 30 second combination by Kaung Kaung in the one fight that made me fall in love with him, just nowhere to be found.

When people ask me for a list of the best lethwei fights, I'd be giving them a list of whatever good fights are available, even if they pale in comparison to the ones I remember. That is the problem with lethwei, it's limited arsenal of ways to bring fights to the big audience and inability to properly preserve them.

A big part of the reason for lack of preservation is that not a lot of people had easy access to the internet before that. A sim card would've cost you around US $2000 ten years ago. And since most of the users are online by their cellphone only, it was very quiet before that time.

It's also difficult to preserve anything in a humid climate; things get mouldy over time. Photographs and video tapes will deteriorate at light speed and not much is easily preserved from the old days. A lot of the videos came from the Burmese Classic website, although the videos there seem to have been removed now. Old VCD recordings were uploaded there by the hundreds, chopped up, shared and re-encoded to what you see on YouTube today.

L-R: Tway Ma Shaung, Thar Thar, Shwe Tun Yon, Kyal Linn Aung, Win Tun, Thutti Aung, Soe Lin Oo, Tha Pyay Nyo & Saw Ohn Myint. A few personal favorites.

Select images courtesy and copyright by Hiroshi Soda and Martial Couderette.

In this series I've decided to give you a profile and some insight into some of my personal favorite boxers. They were some of the first guys I saw when I started getting into lethwei somewhere at the start of 2014. I will present a new profile once I’ve collected enough information from their trainers or people who knew them.

I believe the power in becoming and staying a fan of lethwei resides in explanations—clarifying what and who people are seeing has helped me find my way in this maze years ago, so the emphasis on the fights listed here is on the introduction to the people in the ring and how they got there, and not so much on the fights themselves. I encourage everyone to pursue their own favorites and decide who to enjoy, rather than to keep depending on what other people tell you.

Tway Ma Shaung

Most fans of lethwei will recognize Tway Ma Shaung as the embodiment of resilience and aggression and the best at his craft at 60kg. Although his internecine fighting style did not differ from that of other known hard-heads, it was his durability, agility and finesse that made him a crowd favorite. A do-or-die attitude actually goes a long way in this sport and someone who is comfortable enough in the ring and able to distance himself from the real world for a brief moment has more to gain from their time in the ring than people who don’t.

Tway Ma Shaung was able to transform in the ring and displayed the purest form of his art. He literally went to war. After he won the Golden Belt Championship in 2007 he rode an incredible KO streak earning him the nickname of ‘Knockout King’.

Yan Naing Lin is the son of U Mya Thaung and Daw Nyo Nyo Khin and was born in Taw Ku village, Mon State on September 15, 1982. He moved to Palaw Township in Tanintharyi Division in the south at two years old and eventually started his career in 1996 as Palaw Yan Naing. He didn't go pro until 2004. His teacher at the time gave him the nickname Tway Ma Shaung. His first professional loss came at the hands of Kyal Linn Aung just before he joined the famous KLN* club in Yangon in 2005. They met 7 times of which 6 were draws.

The fight that should have happened

**Tway Ma Shaung and Tun Tun Min before their fights on January 20, 2013.**

Tun Tun Min and Tway Ma Shaung came close to fighting in 2013 were it not for the fact that Tway Ma Shaung was about to leave the sport for good. Tway Ma Shaung contemplated the fight that would have paid a staggering MMK 50 Lakh at the time (around $3,200 USD today) but eventually turned it down even though the purse was bigger than any he had ever been paid.

He was obviously not avoiding the skinny newcomer but some say that Tway was deeply dissatisfied with the direction lethwei was going in and the people that were in charge. He reportedly also had a falling out with his long time trainer from KLN (and thereafter Nagar Mahn). Exactly what this entailed I do not know. There are rumors that he left the sport because of too many injuries but I find that hard to believe. Even after his retirement he had no ailments. Certainly his family played a big role in him not returning to the ring. He got married in 2011 and has two kids now, and his wife had objections to him returning.

Openweight title challenger

A poster announcing a fight for the national champions title between Saw Nga Man (C) and Tway Ma Shaung on February 17, 2013.

He did close out his career in style by challenging for the openweight national title that was held by Saw Nga Man. The fight ended in a draw and even though Saw Nga Man wasn’t in a sea of trouble, it was Tway pressing the action. He did not shy away from fighting larger opponents 10kg heavier than him and disposed of them just as quickly with exactly those qualities he was known and loved for. He held convincing wins over Yan Gyi Aung, Kyaw Nyein, Zan Htoo, Petchtae Jaipetchkorsang and Phoe K. Petchtae actually holds a win over Saw Nga Man while he was the champion.

Tway Ma Shaung’s last fight before his retirement was against the only man he couldn’t beat in 6 previous meetings, and the man who handed him his first ever loss: Kyal Linn Aung. The fight ended in a draw once again.

I have attempted to piece together part of his record by sifting through roughly a hundred Burmese newspapers from 2006-2013 and came up with a very limited list. His record should count anywhere from 70-100 fights, but the papers only highlight the important ones. In the end I think it’s a fair representation of his record if you take into account that he fought many of them multiple times. Win Tun, Yan Gyi Aung, Daung Nyo Lay, Kyal Linn Aung, Phoe K, Aung Zeya etc. all faced him more than four times each.

Although everything here took me about a month to gather it’s not much in the end. If it’s of any interest you can view the unfinished document here. I have also gone through the trouble of saving all the worthy articles from the newspapers. Though they’d only be useful if you can actually read it. The curious may have a gander here.

Selected fights

Tway Ma Shaung vs. Thura Ye Aung on February 24th, 2007 (Tway did not have his Golden Belt yet). Right before their fight Thura had fought with the national champion Lone Chaw and had given him a very hard fight. Because of this Tway looked up to him and was slightly humbled going into the fight. He later proclaimed it was one of the most memorable and one of his favorite fights of his career. Thura Ye Aung eventually retired around 2009.

Tway Ma Shaung vs. Win Tun shortly after the 2007 Golden Belt Championship somewhere in October most likely. Win Tun was now a 2000, 2006 & 2007 Golden Belt Champion and was unbeaten in the region of Thaung Pyin in Mon State where this fight took place. Tway Ma Shaung would go on to dominate the fight and had now taken the unofficial title of king of Thaung Pyin. This opened a lot of doors for him and he would surely see Win Tun about 6 more times over the course of his career.

Tway Ma Shaung vs. Thomas Hengstberger in Austria on May 3rd of 2008. A nice look at Tway in his prime in a rare case of lethwei abroad. He is in trouble early in the fight.

**Tway Ma Shaung at the Hengstberger residence in Austria.**

Tway and his coach Win Zin Oo stayed at Thomas' house to save costs and to give you an indication why: He only received about $150 USD for his Golden Belt win the year before, and that was including a "best boxer" bonus. In fact Thomas paid for many expenses himself out of respect and love for the sport and culture. He would visit Myanmar at a later stage to fight again.
It was still pretty rare at the time for Burmese boxers to go overseas. In 1995 by invitation of the International Kickboxing Federation (who would later arrange for 3 American kickboxers to go to Myanmar in 2001), a select group including Saw Thae Aung, Shwe Du Wun (national champion) and Maung Maung Gyi traveled to Germany. In 2000, then national champion Kyaw Swar went to Australia to fight Dominic de Vanna.
In 2014 two lethwei events were held in Singapore in August and December, and in March 2015 both Too Too and Ye Tagon traveled to Slovakia.

Achievements

**Tway Ma Shaung receives a Challenge Fight belt for his win against Takashige Hirukawa on May 2, 2009.**

2002 Regions & States gold medalist
2007 Golden Belt Champion (60kg)
2008 Challenge Fight Belt (vs. Thepsamut Wan Chorenrit / Pravit)
2009 Dagon Shwe Aung Lan winner (1st class)
2009 Challenge Fight Belt (vs. Takashige “Crazy Hill” Hirukawa)
2013 Dagon Shwe Aung Lan winner (1st class)

The Dagon Shwe Aung Lan is a flag tournament that is discontinued nowadays. Dagon is a brewing company and they were the main sponsor of the event. They still sponsor events today. Shwe means gold and Aung Lan is a flag. The winners of these tournaments received a trophy, a money prize and a golden Dagon flag.

The tournament showed similarities with the Golden Belt Championship, the only difference here is that instead of weight classes there were 3 skill classes and the timeout was intact. Another big difference was the payout. Winners of the tournament, after 3 fights, received between 15 & 30 Lakh depending on which class they were in, sometimes 10x the amount earned at a Golden Belt Championship.

Associated clubs

KLN
T&T (Name changed from KLN)
Nagar Mahn

*KLN was founded in 1994 and named after its initial sponsor. It changed its name in 2010 to T&T. Over the years the club has hosted many well-known boxers and trainers. Some of the coaches proceeded to host their own gym, of which Nagar Mahn and Thut Ti are perhaps the most prominent nowadays.