The world's most brutal fight firm is bringing its unique brand of violence to the US, and it involves head-butt knockouts
- Do you like your combat sports sprinkled with head-butt knockouts? If so, you might like Lethwei.
- Known as "The Art of 9 Limbs," Lethwei is a strike-based combat sport which allows kicks, knees, elbows, punches, and attacks which use the forehead as a weapon.
- One of Lethwei's biggest fight firms, the World Lethwei Championship, is looking to expand out of its base in Myanmar and is planning to construct the greatest show in its history when it debuts in the US this year.
- Prominent Lethwei champion Dave Leduc "will probably be on the card," as will many of its other champions, CEO Gerald Ng told Insider.
If you like head-butt knockouts then keep reading, as one of the world's most brutal fight firms is bringing its unique brand of violence to the United States.
Founded in 2017, the World Lethwei Championship (WLC) has swiftly built a promising stable of fighters who have been showcased in 11 events to date, in various cities in Myanmar.
Through CEO Gerald Ng, the WLC has agreed broadcasting deals in multiple territories including one with UFC Fight Pass, which is subscription-based streaming service home to other fight firms like the UK's MMA promotion Cage Warriors, the female-only MMA firm Invicta FC, and Glory Kickboxing.
Lethwei is slightly different to other combat firms. Aside from hand-wraps it is bare knuckle. And, as it is known as "The Art of 9 Limbs," you can beat your opponent with either foot, knee, fist, elbow … or your forehead. That isn't normal even in the wild west of fight sports.
Ng told MMA Junkie earlier in the year that the company wanted to hold its first event in the US in the fourth quarter of 2020.
While the coronavirus pandemic has derailed many combat sports events all over the world, it has not affected Ng's plans to bring his World Lethwei Championship to America.
"It's going to be delayed a couple months, but we're going to get this thing moving," he told Insider recently.
The WLC team is targeting a date in November, is assessing where the key markets are for strike-based combat, but is prepared to push the event into the early months of 2021 if the coronavirus worsens in the US.
It is a decision Ng would not hesitate to take, even if it is at odds with his vision of building brand awareness outside of Myanmar.
He was happy to nix the company's first international event because of early fears of COVID-19, he said. "As a company, we are conservative. We were supposed to have our first international show in Cambodia in March.
"We postponed that even before there was a confirmed corona case in Cambodia or in Myanmar. We just wanted to err on the side of caution. Looking back, it was probably the right position."
Since then, Ng has worked on bringing his sport back.
He has a behind-closed-doors show in Myanmar, his 12th event, on July 4 and has reorganized the Cambodia event, the company's first international card, for September.
From there, he'll launch other international shows in Thailand, Japan, and the US.
The marquee US event will feature Dave Leduc
Bare knuckle fight sports are only legal in a few US states — like Wyoming, Mississippi, and Florida — and so Ng is working to find a suitable venue in a state which allows it.
Once he's done that, he said he plans to construct the greatest card in WLC's short-lived history.
"Dave will probably be on the card," Ng said of his cruiserweight champion.
Though Ng said it was too soon to say who could be an opponent for the Canadian, he said that "everybody wants to get their hands on him" because of the profile he has.
He then hinted that big-name Lethwei competitors like Too Too and Tun Tun Min could be there, together with other names more familiar to a mainstream fight audience.
"We would want to showcase all of our champions," Ng said. "It will be the most stacked card we've ever done. But you can also expect to see prominent names in other mixed martial arts organizations who are free agents and interested in trying Lethwei."
Ng called Lethwei "a diamond in the rough" when it came to public perception of it as a martial art, but also described it as the "truest" fighting discipline.
"Purely from a combat sports perspective, it's probably the best way to express yourself because the rules are more liberating thus allowing for various levels of techniques," he said. "You're not limited as much compared to other sports."
Ng said he noticed a boon in Lethwei's popularity after the launch of the Netflix documentary "Fight World" in 2018.
Since then, he said people have noticed him, messaged him, and want to learn about the culture of the sport and where it came from.
"That's something that we are really proud of and want to emphasise in our product," Ng said.
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