Every numbered WLC card, 2017–2020 — what happened, who won, and why each card mattered.
The World Lethwei Championship is the youngest of the major international combat-sport promotions and the only one built specifically around Myanmar's bareknuckle tradition. This page documents every numbered WLC card, from WLC 1 in March 2017 to WLC 14 in September 2020, the promotion's last card, with the headline bout, the venue, and a short note on what the card meant.
Combat-sport promotions are remembered by their narratives, not their statistics. A single contested decision can shape a federation's judging policy for the next five years. A single televised finish can launch an international career. The WLC ran numbered cards for less than four years, and those cards are already fading from the casual viewer's memory while the contemporary record is still recoverable in detail. The purpose of this archive is to fix that record before it becomes oral history.
Each event entry below is summarised — the full round-by-round treatment of the most consequential bouts lives in the Fight Analysis section. The entries here are the level of detail that lets a reader place a bout in its calendar context: which card it was on, what happened on the rest of the card, what the headline was, and why the result mattered.
The debut card, billed "The Great Beginning," on a re-purposed driving range at the Mingalardon Country Club. Tun Tun Min stopped British Muay Thai champion Nicholas Carter in round 1; in the co-main event Too Too beat Australia's Eddie Farrell by unanimous decision.
"Ancient Warriors." Poland's Artur Saladiak beat Soe Lin Oo by unanimous decision in his Lethwei debut.
"Legendary Champions." Too Too beat Michael Badato by unanimous decision to become the WLC's first Middleweight World Champion.
"Bareknuckle-King." Too Too's first title defence: a unanimous decision over Ukraine's Vasyl Sorokin.
"Knockout War." Saladiak knocked out Saw Ba Oo in round 4 to win the inaugural Light Middleweight title, making him the WLC's first non-Myanmar world champion.
"Heartless Tigers." Soe Lin Oo knocked out Zhao Wen Wen in round 2.
"Mighty Warriors," the first Lethwei event broadcast internationally on UFC Fight Pass. Portugal's Antonio Faria stopped Saw Htoo Aung to become the first Light Welterweight champion, and Sasha Moisa made his debut by knocking out Shwe Yar Man in round 3.
"Karen Spirit," the first major Lethwei event held in Kayin State. Mite Yine beat Cambodia's Morn Samet, a late replacement, by split decision.
"King of Nine Limbs." Leduc, in his only WLC bout, stopped UFC veteran Seth Baczynski in round 2 for the inaugural Cruiserweight title. Sasha Moisa took the Light Middleweight title from Artur Saladiak by unanimous decision, and Souris Manfredi beat Eh Yanut in the first women's bout after the WLC committed to a female match on every card.
"Fearless Tigers." Both men were undefeated in the WLC; Thway Thit Win Hlaing knocked Burutlek out with an overhand right in round 2.
"Battlebones." Uzbekistan's Naimjon Tuhtaboyev took the Middleweight title from Too Too by split decision, the only loss of Too Too's career.
"Hideout Battle," the WLC's first card after the COVID-19 shutdown (a Phnom Penh card planned for April 2020 as "WLC 12: Khmer Kingdom" was cancelled). France's Souris Manfredi stopped Spain's Maisha Katz in round 4 to become the promotion's first women's world champion.
"Lethwei Showcase," the WLC's last card. Faria retained his title when Spain's Francisco Jose Vinuelas could not continue after round 3. There was no WLC 13.
Three patterns are visible across the WLC's thirteen numbered cards. The first is the broadening of the roster: the debut was headlined by Myanmar's champion against a British opponent, while by 2019 and 2020 title fights were routinely international-versus-international (Leduc vs Baczynski, Moisa vs Saladiak, Faria vs Vinuelas). The second is reach: WLC 7 in February 2019 was the first Lethwei event broadcast internationally on UFC Fight Pass. The third is the women's division: in 2019 the WLC committed to a women's bout on every card, and its first women's world title was decided at WLC 12 in August 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic then cut the calendar short: the last two cards were held at undisclosed locations, and WLC 14 in September 2020 was the final one.
What the archive does not show, and what serious Lethwei readers should bear in mind, is the parallel traditional circuit. MTLF-sanctioned bouts outside the WLC have continued across the same period and have produced their own championship narratives — some of which intersect the WLC record at the Golden Belt level, most of which do not. The traditional sandpit calendar runs in parallel and is not captured here at all. A complete Lethwei archive would need to include both threads; this page documents only the professionalised international thread.