Portrait of Saw Hla Min / Tha Mann Kyar. ©Sacha Petryszyn

If you’re a lethwei fan, the name Tha Mann Kyar should sound familiar to you. He is a former officer in the People's Police Force who turned to boxing, active in the 1970's and 80's. A master of the spinning elbow, he is regarded by many older fans as a pioneer and a legend of the sport.

There were many battles during Tha Mann Kyar’s storied career that left a lasting impression not only with himself, but with the spectators as well. It wasn’t just the Moe Kyoe encounters that built his legacy. His career is littered with colorful anecdotes of his travels around the country and encounters with martial artists extraordinaire. If you ask him directly he will say he was never defeated, but that cannot be a fact. Even the greatest Burmese boxers lose fights unwillingly and Tha Mann Kyar had to give up on more than one occasion. But it's not the losses that people remember. Whether it were Dawei Win Naing's teeth lodged into his hand or him overshooting his "killing move" and nearly blinding Yangon Aung Din in the process, it's the fights that for one reason or another always had a surprising turn of events that left the attending audience in awe or otherwise impressed.

When you mention Tha Mann Kyar, you must also mention this so-called "killing move", his spinning- or reverse elbow. He describes it as a risky but impeccably timed move with absolute finishing power. Every piece of literature, every interview and every Tha Mann Kyar in-ring exhibition proudly showcases his special move. Stories of broken ribs and teeth sent flying, fights gone awry and opponents vomiting on the spot when the move was botched. Hospital visits for immortal opponents like Moe Kyoe and Thamein Bayan are all part of the legend. Sadly there is barely any surviving footage of Tha Mann Kyar, let alone of his legendary spinning elbow. For now we will have to live by the stories and the wonder described by the people who were fortunate to see him in action at the height of his popularity, when his meetings in the ring with the unbreakable king of boxing Thaton Moe Kyoe eventually led him to be the first officially recognized national champion of Burma.

Who is Tha Mann Kyar?

Saw Hla Min was born in Shwe Taw village just outside Hpa-An. He does not exactly remember when he was born but he believes it to be the 1950's. In an interview with one of his old trainers it is mentioned that it was 1958. He is the eldest of 13 siblings. His father U Yaw Day (Kayin Zaw Weit) and grandfather U Shwe Din Gar were also boxers. His father did not really train him or encourage his son to take up boxing, instead most of the training came from his time in the police force which he joined in 1975. After staying in Mawlamyine he transferred to the Apaung Township police station in Mon State, both relatively close to Hpa-An city just across the state border. It was here where he met the station chief U Lein Hone, his trainer from 1976 up to 1981.

u lein hone.jpg — U Lein Hone

A former supervisor in Zin Kyaik, a few miles from Apaung in Mon State, U Lein Hone was promoted to Apaung station chief after fending off an attack by the Karen National Union. It was at this station where he became acquainted with boxing fanatic Saw Hla Min.

One night while out on patrol, Saw Hla Min stumbled upon a local boxing event. Filled with excitement and eager to test himself, the strong 17 year old hid his gun and uniform in the bushes and joined a boxing match. When he returned to the station after winning the fight the station chief noticed bruises on Saw Hla Min's face and wondered what happened. He confessed and was reprimanded for his actions.

But it also made U Lein Hone realize that Saw Hla Min's energy was put to better use in training to become a proper boxer. This was the beginning of a short remarkable journey towards becoming a first-class boxer. Under the guidance of Kyar Ba Nyein and Dr. Stanley Majid, who both partook in the 1952 Olympics, he improved his foot work and boxing skills.

Although he was no longer active as a police officer, he trained at the station with U Lein Hone for about a year. With support of high placed Generals from Mon State who were also boxing fanatics, Saw Hla Min started actively participating at boxing events. The name Tha Mann Kyar (Were-tiger or Man Tiger) came from an old military mission with the same name. Local police often joined in on these missions and since the Apaung Township police force had participated in the "Tha Mann Kyar" mission with the 61st Infantry Battalion from Mon State, and were successful, the station chief and public council chairman agreed to give the name to Saw Hla Min afterwards. The public was introduced to Tha Mann Kyar in a battle with Dathagiri Tin Shwe at the Apaung Sport Stadium, a fight which he won in round 7 and which would lead up to a meeting with Moe Kyoe.

Rivalry with Moe Kyoe

For me the biggest motivation for writing these articles was to find out when a potential title had switched between Moe Kyoe and Tha Mann Kyar, so this is a bit of a personal assignment and it might not be as interesting for everyone. But I think it’s important to write these things down and share it so others may be able to further their own research. As explained in the Moe Kyoe article, prior to Tha Mann Kyar most of the matches were flag fights and the champions were crowned in each skill class rather than having a single national champion, something that came into being when the new system of challenge fights was introduced.

In the interview with station chief U Lein Hone, published in Myanmar Ring Magazine in 2016, two encounters are mentioned. One in 1977 at Mon National Day in Mawlamyine which ended in a draw in round 11 (at the request of Kyar Ba Nyein since the two combatants were too bloody and battered), and another, undated, in Bago at the Shwe Maw Taw Pagoda Festival that ended in a draw as well.

The most detailed piece of information in pinpointing a possible date for a “title change” came from Zoran Rebac who had picked up an old pamphlet during his travels to Burma long ago. Before I could bring myself to request usage of the information on his paper, he had already given me and Myanmar Lethwei Collection the okay, for which I am very thankful. The Moe Kyoe picture was published before in his book Traditional Burmese Boxing, but we never got to see the rest of the document. Without his information I would have had to leave out a big chunk of this article. The two aforementioned fights seem to have happened before the events mentioned on the pamphlet and according to the new system were not official champions challenges since they ended in a draw.

The following is a translation of Moe Kyoe's first-class boxing history from ~1968-1980, also mentioning three encounters with Tha Mann Kyar:

Excerpt from a February 1980 pamphlet mentioning three meetings with Moe Kyoe. ©Zoran Rebac

vs. Thaton Ko Gyi, 3 times, 2 wins, 1 loss
vs. Thaton Ba Hnit, 5 times, 4 wins, 1 loss
vs. Kyal Ni (Phaung Sein), 2 times, 2 wins
vs. Aung Myint Sein (Alal Tan Khun Taing), 2 times, 1 win, 1 draw
vs. Yet Kha, 10 times, 10 wins
vs. Sat Kalay, Tin Shwe (Taung Gyi), Chit Sayar, One Dollar, Kyaung Thar & Bo Kyaw > 1 times each, all wins
(1) vs. Tha Mann Kyar in Thaton was a draw
(2) vs. Tha Mann Kyar at (23rd) Kayin State Day (Nov. 7, 1978) lost due to lack of stamina (gave up).
(3) Rematch vs. Tha Mann Kyar at (32nd) Mon National Day (March 19, 1979) the 15 round fight was completed (but he lost by judges decision, they’ll meet again).

Meeting 2 can be any type of fight; a tournament final, a challenge fight or a champions challenge since the usage of judges cannot be determined. Meetings 1 and 3 are challenge fights, but only number 3 is a confirmed champions challenge according to the usage of judges. Purely based on these five meetings, numbers 2 and 3 mentioned above may have seen a passing of the torch so to speak. The owner of the header image, Sacha Petryszyn, had the opportunity to interview Saw Hla Min briefly when taking his portrait. In it he recalls his peak moment around 1979 where he knocked out Moe Kyoe in the 13th round.

ပဲခူးမှာ သမန်းကျား မိုးကြိုးကို ၁၃ ချီမှာနိုင်တဲ့ပွဲ အရမ်းကောင်း - Si Thu (18 July 2015)
မိုးကြိုးနဲ့ ပဲခူးဘုရားပွဲမှတွေ့ တော့ မိုးကြိုးအချုပ်ကိုသူမခံန်ူင်ဘူး။ တံတောင်မှာ သမန်းကျား အချုပ်မှာမိုးကြိုး - Khin Maung Yin (19 July 2015)

In one of the few comments online regarding Moe Kyoe versing Tha Mann Kyar users Si Thu and Khin Maung Yin in 2015 recall a fight in Bago that ended in round 13 as well. They may or may not refer to November 7th. Perhaps some of the memories have faded and get misinterpreted, or maybe they met again in 1980 as the pamphlet suggests. In any case I personally believe both the above encounters are valid for a change of leadership, a point where we may say that Moe Kyoe had definitely met his match in back to back losses to Tha Mann Kyar.

Remaining career

Tha Mann Kyar (right) delivering a stunning head kick.

There are too many fights to mention but some of them left a lasting memory to Tha Mann Kyar or those close to him. Most of them happened at the turn of the decade.

He faced Thamein Bayan in an event that also saw massive bets from either side. At that time Thamein Bayan, who also fought in Mon State under the name Mudon Htun Wai, was as famous in Yangon as Tha Mann Kyar was in Apaung Township (Thaton District). According to Tha Mann Kyar he won the fight around the seventh round with his spinning elbow to the chest of Thamein Bayan. With a lot of money on the line (reportedly up to a million kyats) and the losers not happy with the outcome, the story eventually got published in the local newspaper. There are some who make a case for Thamein Bayan being an interim Burmese champion of sorts. They claim a win over Tha Mann Kyar in 1984 and a loss to Shwe War Tun causing his retirement around 1988, but I haven’t been able to confirm. Either way, they must not have been official challenges.

Tha Mann Kyar had another convincing fourth round TKO over Saw Ruby who had qualified as a country representative in western boxing and went to Malaysia for the championship. Saw Ruby had surpassed Thaton Ba Hnit in the rankings and as an excellent technician made Tha Mann Kyar brush up on his kicks as he deemed Ruby to be too fast to keep a hold of in the clinch. It were indeed the kicks that stopped Saw Ruby in his tracks.

On May 19, 1980 the Ne Win government issued an amnesty for criminal and political detainees meeting certain criteria. Among them were former armed forces commander and later deputy chairman of the National League for Democracy; General Thura Tin Oo, and ethnic Kokang-Chinese drug lord turned business tycoon Luo Xinghan (a.k.a. Law Sit Han). Tha Mann Kyar ended up involved with both.

On Mon National Day in 1981 General Tin Oo was one of the organizers of an event in Mawlamyine Township which hosted eight Thai vs. Burmese boxing matches. From the Burmese side six of them lost including first class boxers Thaton Ko Gyi, Thaton Ba Hnit, Kyar Thit Ye Aung, Thamein Bayan and Tha Mann Kyar himself. Only Mudon Po Chit and Hpa-An Kyar Gyi were able to force a draw, although not without effort or sacrifice. Even though Tha Mann Kyar was at his peak he and his peers reportedly had tremendous difficulty with the wide variety of kicks the technically superior Thais threw at them.

Versing a man named “Nga Man Phyu” (“White Shark”. This may be a self-appointed name for an opponent they did not know), it was low kicks that crippled Tha Mann Kyar and a swift head-kick that put an end to the fight in just round four. In hindsight they all understood that close-ranged techniques such as elbows or headbutts were not sufficient against those who are excellent at fighting from the outside, like the Thais they encountered. Since nearly all of boxers involved were considered top-tier, it put an incredible dent in the image of traditional Burmese boxing. Coupled with the country’s military dictatorship failing to realize it’s “Burmese Way to Socialism” ideology and having slowly plunged its citizens into poverty and national underdevelopment, lethwei saw a serious decline in popularity for many years.

Also in the early 80’s, though undated, Tha Mann Kyar was drawn into a match with a mysterious bodyguard named Samad. He was the appointed guard for none other than the infamous "Godfather of Heroin" Law Sit Han, a once powerful and influential drug trafficker, prior to his imprisonment for treason in 1973. It seemed that Samad, a Kung Fu master infamous for having removed the intestines of two previous opponents, had put out a call for a challenge to any and all-comers. Quickly, people were eager to present the famous local Burmese boxer named Tha Mann Kyar. Unsure of what they had gotten him into, he accepted the challenge from the can-crushing and skin-piercing Samad. Since this was in Shan state, the stomping ground of Law Sit Han, the odds were against Tha Mann Kyar.

Although he does not recall exactly what happened at the start of the fight, in an interview with journalist Zin Lin Htunn he said he remembered passing out:

“No idea how he did it but yes, I passed out. That was my very first time passing out, but the person who assisted me was very good. At that time Hpa-An Aung Thein Lay was the one who assisted me. He woke me up and encouraged me by saying “Saw Hla Min, I know you! This won’t do anything to you, you are stronger than this” and I replied “I am okay, watch me” and asked for 6 minutes rest. After the resting time, I started looking for his weakness. He looked down on me but when my chance came, I made my spinning elbow move and one of his eyes came out. Yes, that is what the battle looked like.”

Thaton Phyu Gyi

The great Thaton Phyu Gyi, a first class boxer in the 60’s who faced Moe Kyoe earlier in his career. His three sons were well-known traditional boxers: Tin Aung, Aung Win and Tun Win (Shwe War Tun).

In an official champions challenge fight around 1984/1985, Tha Mann Kyar met with the son of the great Thaton Phyu Gyi, a first class boxer active in the 50’s and 60’s. Tun Win was fresh on the scene in the 80’s and after participating in Aung Lan (flag) fights in the Mandalay area the audience came to know him as Shwe War Tun.

After an initial victory over Thamein Bayan his status was promoted from second-class to first-class boxer; a meeting with the champion was inevitable. In a 15 round challenge in the city of Taungoo, Shwe War Tun disposed of the long time champion in impressive fashion and would carry the champions title for at least 10 years.

In a time that saw a lot of political and military activity he kept the spirit of the boxing fans alive in a most respectful manner.

Personal life

“Real traditional boxing, where only the head, fists, elbows, knees and kicks are used, does not exist anymore. Nowadays our boxing is mixed with styles such as K-1 and Muay Thai.. the promoters do not care about the old ways anymore, it’s all about show business.”

Tha Mann Kyar’s professional career lasted from roughly 1976 until 1988, the year of the People's Democracy Movement and the 1988 Uprising. He quit traditional boxing due to the civil unrest in the country but went to fight in Thailand and Cambodia on occasion.

Saw Hla Min also joined the Karen National Liberation Army under the Karen National Union, just like his father. He is a Christian pastor currently living in Taik Kyi, Yangon Region and has four children, of which one has passed away. Two others reside in Canada and one daughter lives with him at home:

“She used to join female boxing matches with the name Khin Sinkyar Kyar and I did not even know that she did. She has my blood, so she did it secretly. But I won’t let her do it anymore.”

He can still be seen ringside for many big events, especially around the Karen New Year festivities. He will enter the ring on occasion to demonstrate his lethwei yei or join an exhibition match to showcase the moves that once made him famous. He is regarded as one of the all-time greats in traditional boxing and should not be forgotten.

Header ©Sacha Petryszyn. The original material that was used for this article is sourced from interviews with Moe Kyoe, Tha Mann Kyar and the late Saya U Bo Sein, thanks to the efforts of U Oscar and Zin Lin Htunn. Special thanks to Phyu Zin Thant, Saw Myo Min Hlaing, Min Oakar, Sacha Petryszyn and Zoran Rebac for their trust and assistance.