‘Once you get a taste, there’s no turning back’: brutal, bloody lethwei making Myanmar a martial arts mecca

There are audible gasps from those gathered ringside when Eddie Farrell lifts his head and smiles broadly through the blood.

The Australian fighter has copped more than a few blows and the ringside doctor has been patching up a nasty cut below Farrell’s right eye, laid on either by fist, elbow or headbutt from his opponent tonight, lethwei legend Saw Nga Man.

All three modes of attack are well within the rules of Myanmar’s treasured and ancient art of bare-knuckle boxing and Farrell later quite wonderfully says he felt like he had mostly been fighting against a lawnmower rather than a man, such was the damage he felt being inflicted.

Over the past 12 months, the World Lethwei Championship (WLC) has started a regular series of fight nights that it hopes will launch lethwei as a major player across the combat sport world, giving local exponents of a martial art first formed thousands of years ago a chance to make serious money, and giving international fighters – those who are brave enough – a chance to throw themselves into the ring.

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It’s been a move not without controversy as traditionalists in Myanmar and elsewhere have balked at what WLC management say are initiatives to make the sport more palatable to an international audience – take that as code for less brutal.