step-by-step

Step by step changes

by U Oscar

Originally published on September 29, 2017

These days I saw a lot of boxing lovers and fans arguing about which system is better and which system is not. The other day when I heard that there will be the battles with 5 rounds only, it confused me like, are there fake boxing battles or what? It is so confusing.. like do they really box or were they just trying to win a bet (as in the fight will be over within 5).

There is no such thing as a draw in traditional boxing. To explain as much as I know, the flag winning system is the beginning of Myanmar traditional boxing. 3 Lar (“Lar” is a resting moment where the referees help the fighters catch their breath etc..) are considered 1 round (for each pair) and after 3 rounds the competitors are supposed to battle to the most extreme. That is why in the earlier days, traditional boxing fights were even known as killing battles.

It is a long story. There used to be 2 referees at all times in traditional flag-winning boxing battles. Referees are meant to protect the lives of the competitors and to take care of the competitors when they’ve had injuries and accidents. There were 3 types of “surrender” in the rules and if one of the competitors fell within one of those categories, the other competitor is not supposed to continue the battle. It is humane. They are not supposed to attack the person who fell.

When one of the competitors shows a stop sign while battling, the other competitor is not supposed to continue the attack. The referee also needs to stop them. In the earlier days, since the competitors used a longyi and wrapped it around the waist as a cloth while battling, if that wrap came undone, the competitor can make a stop sign and redo the wrapping. That is why we had a rule for the stop sign. The competitors are also not supposed to pull the hair, slap the face, poke the eyes, and kick the private parts.

Since this is a competition of the strong men showing their boxing skills, the rules should be set to restrict the competitors from being inhumane. In flag winning battles, there is the 1^st flag, 2^nd flag, 3^rd flag, 4^th flag, 5^th flag and special flag. In traditional boxing, since the early years ‘till now, there were a lot of changes from time to time especially in the rules and systems.

Just like an old Burmese saying, because of the difference in competitors and the referees, the rules have been changing from time to time. Since I am not a researcher, I do not exactly know which rules and which systems started from which year and who invented them.

In the flag winning battles, there are various ways to lose or give up, such as surrender because of intimidation (being scared), surrender because of injury or cut, and surrender due to lack of stamina. For the injury category, there are inner and outer cuts or injuries. Meaning on the face or the harder body parts due to punches, elbows, and head shots. Inner damage are mostly injuries inside the mouth and nose but even though the inner injuries are serious and may be bleeding, if the damage is not on the outer surface, it will not be considered.

When in flag winning battles, there was no tradition of wrapping bandages on the hands. That tradition came later. In the flag winning battles, after 3 Lars (=1 round with 3 resting moments) of 3 rounds and when the competitors started to battle until there was a winner, if one of the competitors fell because of the knees, elbows, punches or kicks, one of the referees has to support the one that fell and the other referee is supposed to hold the hand of the winner and then walk around the ring 3 times and show the audience as a flag winner. If the one that fell cannot get up and continue the battle during that walk, the decision can be made clearly. The winner can show off the flag by breaking it and wearing it on the waist or around the neck.

We could say that the change of system from the flag winning battles to the round system started in Tha Htone. For the flag battles in the Pagoda festivals and monk’s funerals, the competitors for each battle are decided upon by a random draw. After that random draw, no one is supposed to complain about their competitors being too strong, too weak, too old, or too young for them. Since the early days, the traditional boxing events are held during big events and festivals, so they also run for either 3 to 5 days and are very active and attended by a lot of visitors.

In Tha Htone the system changed to battle 4 competitors within a day to get the winning flag, since there were a lot of first-class traditional boxing champions. Those were the days of Tha Htone Moe Kyoe. Since the fans and audiences love Moe Kyoe a lot, the event planners earn a lot by selling lots of tickets on their events by keeping Moe Kyoe as the fixed boxer. The problem started there. For example; in flag battles that included Tha Htone Moe Kyoe, Tha Htone Ba Hnit, Tha Htone Ko Gyi and Tha Htone Tin Shwe, none of the other competitors would fight to their fullest until they met him at some stage of the tournament, saving their energy just for him. Moe Kyoe on the other hand had to fight intensely for every punch and kick in every match. So it is not fair for him.

When the flag winning battles started having this issue, they all decided to try the round battles like western style. In that way, they started proposing for these changes and discuss it with Sayar Gyi U Bo Sein who agreed and said that he planned to go back to the flag winning system if the new system failed.

Sayar Gyi U Bo Sein said that since Moe Kyoe is the king of traditional boxing in those days, if Moe Kyoe is not in the battles, it will be hard to plan the events. With that in mind they slowly implemented the new system and agreed to switch it back if necessary.

So Sayar Kyar (Kyar Ba Nyein was commonly and casually referred to as Saya Kyar) asked Moe Kyoe how many rounds he could survive if they will change the system to have 3 minute rounds with 3 minutes rest and Moe Kyoe answered that if he can get 3 minutes of rest each after every round of 3 minutes, he can survive for 20 rounds. And so, Sayar Bo and Moe Kyoe agreed with 15 rounds of 3 minutes battle and 3 minutes rest.

If by accident one of the competitors is knocked down by knees, elbows, punches etc. during the 1^st or 2^nd round, it will be less enjoyable for the audience. To make sure the competitor can continue they will reserve some time for that in order to satisfy the audience.

So, they decided to set 5 minutes as “recovery” time.

And then Sayar Kyar wanted to make it 6 minutes. Ultimately they decided to introduce two 6 minute recovery periods (during a 15 round battle). Back in those days, the rules and regulations were different from one region to another. Not only were there 15 rounds of 3 minutes and 3 minutes rest, but also 10 rounds battles and two periods of 6 minutes rest with 3 minute extra rounds.

When changing the system to the challenge fight system, instead of depending on the special prayers and oils (religious type of supplements), they instead wanted the competitors to well prepare and challenge the others.

The challenge battle event was also held in Tha Htone. The event planners were the U Sein Myaing family from Tha Htone. The first contract featured Tha Htone Moe Kyoe and Tha Htone Mg Ko Gyi, it was 15 rounds of 3 minutes and 3 minutes rest. There was nothing in the rules about the decision making. What happened in that event was that on the day of the battle, Mg Ko Gyi had an infection on his hand and informed the organizers that he could not participate anymore. So, they had to discuss what to do. So instead of Mg Ko Gyi, they decided to replace the competitor with Tha Htone Ba Hnit and went to Ko Ba Hnit’s home. When they met Ko Ba Hnit, they explained the 15 rounds system to him..

Tha Htone Ba Hnit was not familiar with their explanation. So, he said that he would agree if it would be a flag winning battle, because he does not understand the new system. Since the time of the event is getting close, Sayar U Bo Sein said “you can get 300 kyats after every round of 3 minutes when the judge blows the whistle. You have to battle 15 times like that and the winner will get 1500 kyats and the loser will still get 1000 kyats. You can get 300 kyats after every round. Can you agree”, and finally Ko Ba Hnit agreed with that. So that event was recorded as 15 rounds of 3 minutes and 3 minutes rest.

After announcing the battle, they made Tha Htone Mg Ko Gyi show up on stage and announced that, because of the infection on his hand, he cannot battle today and hence they replaced him with Tha Htone Ba Hnit. They also said the event will go along with the new challenge system.

The fans and boxing lovers, eager to enjoy the battle, appreciated the replacement. During the 15 rounds battle of Tha Htone Moe Kyoe and Tha Htone Ba Hnit, in the 3^rd round, Tha Htone Moe Kyoe got cut and the judges announced that Tha Htone Ba Hnit won. Also, for the winning prize, instead of 900 kyats (as 300 kyats for 3 rounds), the U Sein Myaing family awarded him with 1000 kyats. I was able to rewrite all of this since Saya Gyi U Bo Sein and Tha Htone Ba Hnit explained in detail about this event as one of their great memories.

(The various amounts of award money does not make sense as you can see, but this is how it was written down. Ultimately it doesn’t really matter..)

Later on, Myanmar Traditional Sport Federation was founded and Thiri Thudhamma Theingi Daw Mi Mi Khin took the responsibility as chairman while U Myint Maung was the secretary.

(From October 29, 1995 Myanmar traditional boxing clubs had to register with U Myint Maung and pay 500kyats)

Later, during the reign of general Maung Nyunt, in order to make a decision upon the golden belt winners, judges of the traditional boxing events were trained to manage the scoring systems. After that, on the days when general Kyaw Zin was secretary, Sayar Win Zin Oo and Dr. Ivan started using the terms old system (flag) and new system (challenge) for the training based on the traditional techniques.

These are the changes of traditional boxing from time to time. I will continue to write more if I get more information.