WEIGHT CLASSES
The WLC's 12 weight classes, plus traditional openweight — light flyweight through heavyweight.
Lethwei was originally an openweight art. The codified divisions you see today were introduced in the 20th century, building on the modern rules Kyar Ba Nyein drew up after he returned from the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Below: every sanctioned weight, the styles that thrive there, and the fighters who define each class.
Light Flyweight
The lightest weight on the WLC's own weight-class table, restricted to female fighters.
→ The WLC's table lists a Light Flyweight limit, but we have not found a record of a Light Flyweight world championship ever being contested.
Flyweight
One step up from Light Flyweight on the WLC's table, open to both men and women.
→ We have not found a record of a WLC Flyweight world championship ever being contested.
Bantamweight
Open to men and women on the WLC's table, one step up from flyweight.
→ Souris Manfredi is the only Women's Bantamweight World Champion the WLC ever crowned.
Featherweight
One of the WLC's lighter divisions, open to both men and women on its table.
→ Mite Yine won the Lethwei Golden Belt Featherweight World Championship in 2015 and 2016.
Lightweight
Open to both men and women on the WLC's table, one step up from featherweight.
→ We have not found a record of a WLC Lightweight world championship ever being contested.
Light Welterweight
Open to both men and women on the WLC's table, one step up from lightweight.
→ Portugal's Antonio Faria became the first WLC Light Welterweight World Champion, defeating Myanmar's Saw Htoo Aung at WLC 7: Mighty Warriors (February 2019), and made one successful defence before the WLC stopped holding events.
Welterweight
A men's division on the WLC's table, between light welterweight and light middleweight.
→ We have not found a record of a WLC Welterweight world championship ever being contested.
Light Middleweight
A men's division on the WLC's table, between welterweight and middleweight.
→ Poland's Artur Saladiak won the inaugural WLC Light Middleweight World Championship by fourth-round knockout over Saw Ba Oo at WLC 5: Knockout War (2 June 2018); Ukraine's Sasha Moisa took the title from him by decision at WLC 9: King of Nine Limbs (2 August 2019).
Middleweight
A men's division on the WLC's table, between light middleweight and light heavyweight.
→ Too Too and Naimjon Tuhtaboyev have held the WLC Middleweight World Championship.
Light Heavyweight
A men's division on the WLC's table, between middleweight and cruiserweight.
→ We have not found a record of a WLC Light Heavyweight world championship ever being contested.
Cruiserweight
The WLC's second-heaviest division on its table, between light heavyweight and heavyweight.
→ Dave Leduc became the first WLC Cruiserweight World Champion, defeating Seth Baczynski at WLC 9: King of Nine Limbs (2 August 2019).
Heavyweight
The heaviest division on the WLC's own table — everything above the cruiserweight line, with no upper limit.
→ We have not found a record of a WLC Heavyweight world championship ever being contested.
Openweight
Lethwei's original, no-limit category — the traditional Golden Belt division, not one of the WLC's own sanctioned weight classes. Old-school Lethwei was contested openweight by default; the WLC's codified weight divisions were a later addition built on the modern rules Kyar Ba Nyein drew up after the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.
→ Tun Tun Min and Dave Leduc fought their trilogy at openweight; the Golden Belt itself is openweight in its highest form.
How the modern divisions actually got built
Until the 1950s, Lethwei was an openweight art. Fighters arrived at the sandpit, were sized up by the sayar, and were matched by eye, with no weight-class structure that traveled across state borders. Kyar Ba Nyein drew up the modern, scientific rules used for Lethwei since 1953, after returning from the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, and the codified weight divisions used today were built on top of that rules foundation over the decades that followed, culminating in the WLC's own international division list.
We have not found a published, dated history of exactly when each individual weight class on this page was added or adjusted, so we are not going to invent one here. What is documented is the current structure: the WLC's own division table, and the separate, longer-running MTLF Openweight Golden Belt lineage.
Championship lineage and what it tells you
Across the WLC's run, only five world championships were ever crowned: Cruiserweight, Middleweight, Light Middleweight, Light Welterweight, and the Women's Bantamweight title. Each had genuine international depth in its contender pool by the time the promotion stopped holding events after 2020.
The Openweight Golden Belt, held under MTLF auspices, is a separate and longer-running lineage from the WLC's own titles — it predates the WLC and has been held by Myanmar fighters such as Lone Chaw, Saw Nga Man, and Tun Tun Min, as well as, since 2016, international fighters such as Dave Leduc.
The women's division weight system
The WLC created exactly one women's world title in its history: the Women's Bantamweight Championship. France's Souris Manfredi became the division's first and only champion, defeating Maisha Katz at WLC 12 on August 28, 2020, and held the belt with zero defenses before the promotion stopped holding events. We have not found a source for any other WLC women's weight division ever being contested.