Lethwei Match Types
Header copyright and courtesy of Myanmar Lethwei Collection.
In lethwei there are three match types, ranging from novice to professional. Below I will summarize what each type entails and how to recognize them. I will omit some of the in-depth rules as they do not matter so much in relation to understanding the differences between the match types. On festivals during multiple day events, all of these can be seen. If you regularly watch World Lethwei Championship or Lethwei in Japan, you’ll only be familiar with the challenge fights listed at the bottom.
Also of note is that many aspects of lethwei are not written down in some official rule-book. Especially when it comes to match structure or consistency in upholding the fighting rules. A lot of it has previously been agreed upon verbally and is therefore prone to interpretation. Lethwei is very new to international eyes and the pressure that comes with it, and it’s not in their nature to easily and rapidly make changes to their sport.
Kyar Pwe (Interim / interval fight)
Type 1: young children (1 referee, 1 round, usually no winner, almost always draw)
Type 2: teens (1 referee, 1 round, can end in a draw)
Type 3: Aung Lan Htein (2 referees, 2 rounds, can end in a draw)
Type 4: regular Kyar Pwe (2 referees, 3 rounds, can end in a draw)
The first match type is Kyar Pwe, the most basic one. I have named them type 1, type 2 etc, but this is purely to differentiate. It is called an interval fight because the matches are not continuous but fought round-by-round. The boxers participating are either children or novice teenage boxers so each round is fought separately and two referees are present in the ring. This type can be sub-categorized in kids fights, ‘Aung Lan Htein’ and common Kyar Pwe. The rules in these fights are not as strict taking into consideration that these are novice and semi-pro fighters.
There are no timeouts, instead the referees will aid in massaging, stretching or comforting the two participants before resuming the action, something that is not done at the professional level. Each round in a Kyar Pwe is roughly three minutes, but may be ended by the referees or judges even after two minutes if someone is knocked down. The pair will simply leave the ring and wait for the next cycle to start the next round.
A multiple-day festival will almost always start off with some comic relief by hosting young children’s fights. These fights fall under the Kyar Pwe category even though they are only one round and have one referee. There may be various reasons as to why the kids enter the ring. Sometimes the children just want to fight for fun or settle a score with someone from the neighborhood. Perhaps the family wants it to be a rite of passage. Either way, these fights only last a few minutes and are easily and quickly brought to a halt before anyone can get seriously injured.
Sometimes two fights take place in the ring at the same time, each with their own referee. There is usually no winner, even if one of the kids gets knocked down. These fights are not limited to the smallest, some older kids will use this one-round system (Type 2) before moving on to Kyar Pwe with 2 or more rounds.
Image 1. The significance of Aung Lan Htein during 3-round flag fights.
A third type of Kyar Pwe is the Aung Lan Htein (see image 1). These fights are used to keep the momentum going in-between Aung Lan fights (3 round flag fights, explained hereafter). These fights tend to be two rounds and are added to the cycle of the Aung Lan fights so that the audience doesn’t have to sit around for 15 minutes after each cycle. These extra fights are added because the guys in the Aung Lan need these extra minutes to recover. Especially if the fight goes to a draw since the fight is then extended for 30 minutes non-stop.
The last type of Kyar Pwe are the regular 3 round fights. It works in the exact same way as the Aung Lan structure seen in the image above. Two or three pairs will fight, round by round. Although this type of fight looks exactly like that of an Aung Lan tournament fight, the big difference is that an Aung Lan fight will never end in a draw.
Aung Lan Lu Pwe (Flag fights)
2 referees, 3 rounds, 30 minutes extension if needed, coin toss if no winner.
Aung Lan refers to the ‘winners flag’ while Lu Pwe means ‘the fight for’. An Aung Lan Lu Pwe tournament normally features 4 or 8 participants fighting on consecutive days in order to capture the victory flag in the finals. These fights are also fought round-by-round giving each pair of fighters in the tournament enough time to recover before being recalled to the ring for another round. As in Kyar Pwe, there are no timeouts and the referees assist instead.
Flag fights have a few unique characteristics. In the last round when a boxer knocks his opponent down, the referee will take his hand and circle the ring three times. Every time he passes the downed opponent he will challenge him by slapping his elbow. If the opponent does not get up after the third challenge, he loses the fight.
Another big difference with Kyar Pwe is that there must be a winner. If an Aung Lan fight has no winner, the third round is extended for 30 minutes. Seconds will not be allowed to contact the fighters and a two minute rest period is granted after 15 minutes only if both parties agree. This will benefit the person with better stamina and declining the rest period may work in your favor. Yet if no winner emerges a lot will be drawn or a coin will be tossed to decide a victor.
Sein Khaw Pwe (Gyi) / Pyain Pwe (Challenge fights)
1 referee, 3-5 rounds, can end in draw.
A 1997 poster announcing ‘The Great Challenge Fight’ (စိန်ခေါ်ပွဲကြီး) between Shwe Du Wun and Wan Chai.
Sein Khaw Pwe refers to a challenge fight, mainly used to describe main card fights and fights of importance. The word Gyi adds grandeur. Pyain Pwe is simply an ‘Event fight’ and is the exact same type, but used to describe fights on under-cards or on events that are too local to see the light of day.
Challenge fights are continuous and can be 3 to 5 rounds. In challenge fights and Pyain Pwe you can call for a 2 minute timeout in any round except for the last. On bigger cards they’ll start of with 3 round Pyain Pwe or Sein Khaw Pwe, and end up with a few 5 round fights. Anyone who has watched a WLC or ILFJ card has seen these.
Until the early 90’s it was more common to also have 2 referees present in the ring, and matches could be staged as 7, 10 or 12 rounds. Since then this has been changed for good and matches do not exceed 5 rounds.
Any type of fight that does not fit any of these categories have either a hybrid or a modified rule-set for a specific purpose. Sometimes 1 or 2 round fights may also be called Sein Khaw Pwe – A promoter is free to do what he wants at his event. Essentially the 1 rounder is no different than a 1 round Kyar Pwe. The only difference in the 2 rounder is the continuity.
A type that has grown the most over the last decade is the ‘no timeout and judges’ rule-set currently used by World Lethwei Championship. It is also used in the yearly Golden Belt Championship and the Regions and States tournaments because they require a winner and boxers fight multiple times a week/month.
Some video footage of each type
Full coverage of one festival day (part 2 / part 3) (SkyNet DTH, November 25, 2018)
Children in a 1 round Kyar Pwe (Burmese-boxing.com, February 4, 2015)
2 rounds Aung Lan Htein and 3 rounds Aung Lan (At the start of the video the second round of an Aung Lan fight ends, and the second round of an Aung Lan Htein fight starts. This corresponds with cycle 2 described in image 1 of this article. Hein Thiha, March 20, 2019)
Three pairs of boxers fight 3 rounds Kyar Pwe (Canal+ Myanmar FG, January 30, 2019)
Aung Lan Lu Pwe third round + extension (Toshiya Kurenai, January 31, 2018)
4 rounds Pyain Pwe (Than Lwin Khet, July 21, 2019)
5 rounds Challenge Fight (ILFJ Lethwei in Japan, November 15, 2017)