In part one, I looked at the history of the Mon, which provides background to what you are about to read.

In this follow-up article I focus on Shwe Yar Man and his grandfather and how he influenced his grandson. The bridge between the history of the Mon and Shwe Yar Man was his involvement with the rebels who continue to fight the Burmese government to this day.

There is limited information on his grandfather and even on Shwe Yar Man, at least online. I am very much dependent on the cooperation and friendship of others, without them I would be extremely limited in what I can do. I am eternally grateful for having had the chance to interview Yar Man briefly to give some depth to this story.

The Bantam

**U Dee teaches Shwe Yar Man at the Nagar Mann lethwei club in Yangon.**

Kyine Dee (U Dee) was born in the heart of Monland—Ye city, Mon state—in 1946, a year after the Burma Campaign concluded and the Pacific War ended.

He is a retired Burmese boxer who became active during the second half of Moe Kyoe's reign as champion in the 70's. He had impressive wrestling and grappling skills which gave him a unique advantage. He passed these techniques on to his grandson but I have not seen them implemented into any of his fights yet.

U Dee prides himself on being tough to knock out because of his solid jaw which he trained strenuously by chewing rubber.

His nickname ‘Kyet Tein Nyin’, comes from the Burmese word for ‘Bantam’. Standing 5'5" tall and weighing 140 pounds he was of average size and wasn't much bigger than the national champion himself who stood 5'6" and came in at 137 pounds.

**The teaching of older clinching techniques seems to be slowly dying out. Here U Dee demonstrates the ease of manipulating your opponent to deliver painful strikes.**

He started his professional boxing career in 1971 at the relatively late age of 24 and celebrates two Aung Lan flag tournament victories, one in the second class and another in the first class. Although many of the following names won't mean anything to most people I will list his opponents for the sake of historical value:

In the second class tournament he beat Thamein Bayan, Nay Pyi Daw Tin Win (1996 golden belt champion Zaw Win Tun's father) and Paing Kyon Tin Aung. In the first class tournament he defeated Tat Lu Tin Shwe, Shwe La Mu and Thaung Tin. Interesting to note is that those classes are skill based but the boxers he met in second class are more well known today than those in the first class. Closing out the 70's Thamein Bayan went on to become a serious challenger to the title.

U Dee boasts about five meetings with a young upcoming boxer named Saw Hla Min from Hlaingbwe Township in Kayin state, better known as the immensely popular ‘elbow hunter’ Tha Mann Kyar. This was in the early 70's before he laid claim to the national title. U Dee won four bouts and said he couldn't win in their last fight since Tha Mann Kyar had rapidly become stronger. It wouldn’t be long before Tha Mann Kyar would take the national title from Kayin born warrior ‘Thaton’ Moe Kyoe.

Against six-foot tall Ba Hnit The Giant he recalls a headbutt knockdown, but the match ended up with a draw result. Ba Hnit eventually faced Tha Mann Kyar during his time as champion. Further meetings with Judo Kyaw Sein, Thamein Bayan and Yangon Aung Din ended in victory. Yangon Aung Din currently still serves as a ringside judge and is a member of the Traditional Boxing & Sports Federation.

Closing out his career, U Dee devoted himself as a rebel against the government like many generations had done before him. Many Mon currently have family members in active or dormant insurgent groups strategically placed around the state, always at the ready to defend against questionable governmental rulings or attacks against the Mon or their territory. He became the commander-in-chief for the Mon National Liberation Army (anno 1971), the armed wing of the New Mon State Party (anno 1958). U Dee resigned from the NMSP in 1996, a year after they reluctantly agreed to a ceasefire with the government after 37 years of armed conflict. Some estimates say that the party lost almost half of it’s members following the ceasefire.

After leaving the party he started to train local boxers. One of his first students was none other than 16 year old Tway Ma Shaung when he frequented Mon State as a junior. Tway went 6-0 (4) in the 1999-2000 season. U Dee’s current focus lies on Naing Win Tun and Shwe Yar Man at the Razadarit club, founded in 2019.

Besides Shwe Yar Man’s father, U Dee has another son who eventually became a second class lethwei fighter. His name was De Nay Ye who fought under the name Nay Win Tun. His accomplishments are not widely known.

The Golden Boy

**Shwe Yar Man with his grandfather after his first round victory over Fabio on March 8, 2020. ©MLC**

Shwe Yar Man was born in 2000 as Kyaw Lin Htet and started training for lethwei at age 7. This includes several years of training and non-commitment to in-ring competition.

His ring-name, given to him by his grandfather, consists of the word Shwe (gold) and Raman, the classical ethnonym for Mon. The way his name is written in roman varies because the character for ‘Ya’ may also be written (and sometimes pronounced) as ‘Ra’, often with the inclusion of a silent ‘r’. Therefore Yar Man, Rar Man, Raman, Yar Marn and many more variations are all correct.

His career as a full-time professional took off in 2015 when he had his first 5 round fight. He said that in the beginning he sometimes felt regret and dissatisfaction in how things played out in the ring; he lost to Kyal Lin Aung in the quarter final of the 2016 Golden Belt Championship and also lost to Htet Aung Oo in the 2016 Air KBZ sponsored championship.

But as his popularity grew and he matured into his fighting style he let go of those emotions. When asked if he had any desire to become the national champion he replied that he simply enjoys taking on all-comers without setting a clear goal in what he wants to reach in the sport. He would like to be champion in some way but it seems he is content with letting his grandfather decide his fate and will face the challenges as they cross his path.

He received the bulk of his training via his hero and grandfather who has been there for him since day one. U Dee was classically trained with older techniques that have a hard time surviving in the modern era. Some of the techniques combine grappling and the use of momentum with a finishing strike or manipulation of posture in the clinch. The video below, taken in the 80’s by Zoran Rebac, shows a variation of what U Dee is showing Shwe Yar Man in the image above.

““အကို တူးတူး ကလွဲရင် အကုန်ထိုးမယ်” - I will fight everyone except brother Too Too.”

Yar Man’s first big club was Nagar Mann, run by Kyaw Soe and the home of Too Too who was a welcome training partner and is to this day a respected brother whom he will not fight. Kyaw Soe, having trained the likes of Eh Htee Kaw, Thar Thar and Tway Ma Shaung in the past, was a most excellent starting point for Shwe Yar Man outside of his own grandfather.

He left the club and from 2016-2018 joined the Mandalay 1886 club that was run by the one person who brought about the biggest change in him: his step-father U Chaw Hla. Chaw Hla was a successful western boxer and occasional lethwei fighter and made significant improvements to his boxing and clinching game. While enrolled at the club in 2017 he married Chaw Hla’s daughter Phyu Thin Khaing. They currently have a son.

In 2018 he moved with Chaw Hla to his new club Shwe Dawbon, named after the township in Yangon. It was here that Yar Man would see some of his most celebrated fights in a more-than-convincing draw with Phyan Thway and victories over Saw Ba Oo and Soe Lin Oo to attain first class status. His fight with Tun Tun Min would more or less be an evaluation on keeping this rank.Later in 2019 he switched to the Razadarit club in Ye city, Mon state, run in part by U Dee and named after the immensely popular King who ruled Hantharwaddy-Pegu in the late 14th and early 15th century.

Evaluation

Shwe Yar Man at 75kg is one of the bigger boxers in the current pool of active lethwei competitors. As he grew in size over the years he has had to look for opponents in lower weight-classes. In the villages in Mon or Kayin state this isn't a problem as he does not need to cut weight, but when moving to Yangon in big events or in World Lethwei Championship he has to cut weight to 71kg.

From 2017-2019 Yar Man has had four high-profile fights in either Yangon or Mandalay which required him to cut weight:

2017.06.10 vs. Thway Thit Win Hlaing (WLC 2 @ Thuwunna National Indoor Stadium)
2019.02.22 vs. Oleksandr Moisa (WLC 7 @ Mandalar Thiri Indoor Stadium, Mandalay)
2019.10.11 vs. Phyan Thway II (WLC 10 @ Mandalar Thiri Indoor Stadium, Mandalay)
2019.11.03 vs. Soe Lin Oo II (6th Air KBZ Championship @ Thein Phyu Stadium)

In WLC he lost to Thway Thit Win Hlaing by decision and to Sasha Moisa by KO3. The decision against Win Hlaing is in part due to both guys having a very similar style in that they are both counter strikers and like to stay on the outside usually resulting in exciting exchanges but nevertheless, draws.

Above: Shwe Yar Man photographed at WLC 7 where he faced an excellent boxer in Sasha Moisa. Images provided by KARL R. De MESA

In the Phyan Thway rematch he lost by KO4 and in Yangon he lost to Soe Lin Oo by KO5. In fact he turtled up for the near entirety of the fifth round in the Soe Lin Oo rematch, another bad habit I thought he had let go years earlier when he was overly tentative. Even if his opponents barely had any offense he would stand in front of them just waiting and it wasn’t uncommon until recently that referees had to incite him to fight.

He was definitely afraid to get tagged and has always had a questionable defense. He would evade even the slightest feints by completely backing up into a corner, it gave his opponents the killer instinct they needed. It’s a habit that Chaw Hla was able to iron out partially, but it’s definitely something that needs a lot of attention going forward.

U Dee speaks proudly of his grandson’s achievement of becoming a first class athlete by the age of 20 after 33 fights. He says all challengers are welcome. Because of his background U Dee is regarded as the wisest, and as an overseer there is no doubt that he accepted the fights on his behalf. But he completely misjudged in how different those re-matches would turn out to be and perhaps gave his grandson a bad stigma and a purse that could have been bigger than it turned out. It is a sentiment shared by some of his fans.

At his natural weight and in his home state Shwe Yar Man can be unstoppable. Without the effects of weight cutting severely impairing his stamina or the pressures from big televised events he can really rise to the occasion and put all of his qualities on display. But if he wants to keep growing, he needs to change his focus to accepting fights with foreign competition his own size or get some say in who he chooses as his opponents himself. If he can successfully brush up on some of the holes in his game he can still be a challenger to the national title. He is all Myanmar has to offer currently.

To date Shwe Yar Man has had roughly 30+ fights in his professional career and his only award has been a custom Mon specific challenge fight belt he won by defeating Boonpala in January this year. He’s only 20 years old, but whether he will rise or fall in the near future I cannot predict at this point.

Header shows Shwe Yar Man receiving his custom belt with wording in Mon after defeating Boonpala on January 17, 2020. ©MLC

Special thanks to Myanmar Lethwei Collection for giving me the opportunity to interview Shwe Yar Man for some much needed facts. Min Oakar, you are a treasure!