PROMOTIONS & EVENTS

The World Lethwei Championship was launched by businessman Zay Thiha, who had started Lekkha Moun Co in 2015, as a subsidiary of that company; Zay Thiha is separately Vice-Chairman of the Zaykabar Company, a construction company. The WLC held its first event, WLC 1: The Great Beginning, on 3 March 2017 at the Mingalardon Event Zone in Yangon.

The WLC's rules established a weight-class system of 12 divisions, from Light Flyweight (105.8 lb / 48 kg, women only) up to Heavyweight (185.2 lb+ / 84 kg+, men). Five divisions (Flyweight, Bantamweight, Featherweight, Lightweight, and Light Welterweight) were open to both men and women, six (Welterweight, Light Middleweight, Middleweight, Light Heavyweight, Cruiserweight, and Heavyweight) were men-only, and Light Flyweight was women-only. Over its run, the WLC crowned final world champions in only five of those divisions: Cruiserweight (Dave Leduc), Middleweight (Naimjon Tuhtaboyev), Light Middleweight (Sasha Moisa), Light Welterweight (Antonio Faria), and Women's Bantamweight (Souris Manfredi).

Tun Tun Min headlined the promotion's first card: at WLC 1: The Great Beginning on 3 March 2017, he knocked out England's Nicholas Carter in round 1 at 2:59.

At the end of 2018, the WLC signed a broadcasting deal with the Ultimate Fighting Championship. WLC 7: Mighty Warriors, held in February 2019 in Mandalay, became the first Lethwei event broadcast internationally on UFC Fight Pass, the streaming platform owned by the UFC. WLC 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 were carried on UFC Fight Pass, and the WLC has an official YouTube channel (@worldlethwei).

Beyond UFC Fight Pass, the WLC assembled a broadcast portfolio that included Sky Net, the first channel to broadcast WLC events live in Myanmar, and a 2018 deal with Canal+ for exclusive broadcasting rights in Myanmar. International partners including Fight Network, Arena Sport, Fox Sports, Star Sports, Bayon Television, Titan Channel, Sport Extra, and StarTimes eventually carried WLC events to over 100 countries and territories.

The WLC also built a relationship with ONE Championship, the mixed martial arts promotion. In October 2016, the WLC became one of ONE Championship's partners at ONE Championship: State of Warriors in Yangon, and the two organizations agreed to send athletes to fight in each other's promotion. On 30 June 2017, that partnership produced a Lethwei dark match at ONE Championship: Light of a Nation, in which Soe Htet Oo lost a decision to Thway Thit Win Hlaing under the WLC's point system. As of 2022, there were reported rumours that WLC champion Dave Leduc might cross over to ONE Championship under Lethwei rules.

Individual WLC events became landmarks in the sport's modern timeline. WLC 5: Knockout War, held in June 2018 in Naypyidaw, saw Artur Saladiak stop Saw Ba Oo to become the first Light Middleweight WLC champion. WLC 10: Fearless Tigers, staged in October 2019 in Mandalay and streamed on UFC Fight Pass, was headlined by Thway Thit Win Hlaing's knockout win over Burutlek Petchyindee Academy. Outside the WLC's own numbered cards, Dave Leduc and Tun Tun Min met for a third time on 16 December 2018 at a sold-out Thein Pyu Stadium in Yangon, in a bout billed “The Biggest Fight in Lethwei History”: Leduc knocked Tun Tun Min down with an elbow in round 1, and the fight went the distance to a draw, with Leduc retaining the Golden Belt.

The WLC signed Myanmar's biggest domestic names early — Tun Tun Min and Too Too among them — in 2017, and its roster grew to include fighters from Canada, Poland, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Uganda, Portugal, France, and the United States, among other countries. Dave Leduc signed an exclusive contract with the WLC in March 2019.

Two different things carry the Golden Belt name. The traditional Lethwei Golden Belt is regarded as the highest and most prestigious award for Lethwei fighters, with one champion for each weight category. The annual Golden Belt Championship, organized by the Myanmar Traditional Lethwei Federation, is composed mostly of younger rising talent and uses the tournament rules point system.

The annual championship is a tournament, and it uses the ruleset the MTLF created in 1996: judges sit ringside, so a bout without a knockout still produces a winner who advances. That is not the traditional rule set, which has no scoring system. Under traditional rules, a bout in which both fighters are still standing at the end is declared a draw. The MTLF section below describes the 1996 rules.

The openweight champion of the traditional Golden Belt is considered the strongest fighter in Myanmar. Openweight Golden Belt champions include Lone Chaw, who held the title from 2006 to 2009; Wan Chai, who held it in 1998 and 1999 and, in 2001, beat American challenger Doug Evans by TKO in round 1 at Thuwunna Stadium in Yangon; Saw Nga Man, who held it from early 2009 until Tun Tun Min took it from him in September 2014; and Tun Tun Min, who won the Openweight Golden Belt before signing with the WLC.

The Myanmar Traditional Lethwei Federation is a branch of Myanmar's Ministry of Health and Sports. In 1996, the MTLF created the tournament ruleset used for the inaugural Golden Belt Championship — removing the two-minute injury timeout of the traditional rules and adding ringside judges so that a bout without a knockout would still produce a winner. The World Lethwei Championship later adopted this same ruleset for its own events.

From 10 to 11 July 2004, four Japanese mixed martial arts fighters — Akitoshi Tamura, Yoshitaro Niimi, Takeharu Yamamoto, and Naruji Wakasugi — fought Burmese fighters. Tamura knocked out Aya Bo Sein in the second round and became the first foreigner to beat a Myanmar Lethwei practitioner in an official match.

The International Lethwei Federation Japan (ILFJ) is a Japanese Lethwei promotion with headquarters in Tokyo. In 2016, it acquired a “Grade-A” promoter licence from the Myanmar Traditional Lethwei Federation, allowing it to organize traditional Lethwei events in Japan, and it entered into a partnership with Myanmar businessman Mr. Wunna, CEO of Myanmar Media Group — the organizer of the Myanmar Lethwei World Championship — to share fighters and co-organize the events.

The first ILFJ event, Lethwei Grand Prix Japan 2016, was held on 27 October 2016 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. It was a five-bout card; Tun Tun Min knocked out Australia's Adem Yilmaz in round 5. The ILFJ uses traditional Lethwei rules, with no point system. The only way to win is by knockout or because of an injury or the inability to fight any more, and if both fighters are still standing at the end of the match, the fight is declared a draw.

FITE TV signed a multi-year agreement to broadcast the ILFJ's events, and in 2017 the ILFJ signed a broadcasting deal with MNTV to air them in Myanmar. Its 2019 cards were held at Korakuen Hall, and Lethwei in Japan 15: Kizuna was held at Edion Arena on 22 February 2020.

The Lethwei Fighting Championship grew out of Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship's own Lethwei branch. At BKFC's 2025 Champions Summit, BKFC announced that it was acquiring majority shares in a Lethwei promotion in Asia; the new branch was named “BKFC Lethwei” and headed by Nick Chapman, the former CEO of BKFC Thailand. Fans voted to rename the promotion Lethwei Fighting Championship on 12 January 2026, and it later parted ways with BKFC to operate as an independent promotion.

This page does not describe the LFC's events, roster, or broadcasts, because we have not found a published source for them.