Burmese boxing

[Cthulhu]

I was flipping through my copy of Comprehensive Asian Fighting Arts by Draeger and Smith, and came across a bit on Burmese boxing.

According to Draeger and Smith:

It resembles Thai boxing, but, because the average size of its boxers is greater, it is more powerful, if slower.

Training can be done solo, or with a partner. However, unlike other styles of boxing, Burmese boxers reportedly do not rely on other training equipment, like punching bags or kicking shields.

There are four grades of fighter, but no weight divisions. The ranks are youth, novice, intermediate, and professional. Very much like traditional sumo, promotions are made on the results of fights.

From Draeger and Smith:

A contest consists of four untimed rounds. A telling blow or grappling technique marks the ned of each round except the last, which is contested until one boxer is either knocked out, bloodied, or admits defeat. There are two referees in the ring and six judges outside to adjudicate the bout. The fighters do not use protective cups over the groin-that area and below the navel are against the rules, as are hair-pulling and scratching. Blood resulting from a head attack stops the fight immediately. Blood on the body does not count. For this reason, most tactics are directed at the head. A man knocked down may not be kicked while down and may return to the fray after being revived following a knockout. The headbutt is well within the rules and full advantage is taken of it. Throwing is allowed also, a factor which, with the weight advantage, has led to a general superiority of the Burmese over Thai boxers. Throwing is enhanced by the fact that no gloves or wrappings are worn on the hands. Legal niceties are taken care of by waivers signed by the fighters before the fight begins.

So basically, it's like Mike Tyson boxing, but without the biting!

Sorry...couldn't resist!

Cthulhu

 

[arnisador]

This is something! What is the current status of this as a sport--is it as popular in Burma as Muay Thai is in Thailand?

 

[Cthulhu]

The latest date given is 1961, and that's for a list of noted Burmese boxers. There is nothing noted beyond that date.

Comprehensive Asian Fighting Arts was published back in '69, though, with the paperback coming out in '80. I don't think the paperback is revised, so I'd guess that the info in my paperback was up to 1969.

With the info mentioned in another thread about Vietnamese/Cambodian claims to Muay Thai, and the similarity of Burmese boxing to Muay Thai, perhaps there is a common ancestral art.

Cthulhu

 

[Cthulhu]

Aha! Look what I found!

http://www.irrawaddy.org/news/2001/june-6.html

I'll see if I can dig up any more stuff.

Gotta love Google.

Cthulhu

 

[Cthulhu]

Woohoo! Web page with pictures!

http://www.geocities.com/vandeelen/Pukulan/burmese/

Nasty stuff. The page has a clarification on the 'no hitting when the fighter is down' rule. You can't hit your opponent if he is down and both shoulder blades are touching the mat. If only one shoulder blade is touching the mat, however...

Brutal. I like it!

Cthulhu

 

[arnisador]

That is some nasty stuff. I wonder why we don't hear more about Burmese kickboxing?

This page calls it Muay Bando.

Also:
http://www.man-magazine.com/uk/2001/10/traditional/2001,10,11,125,1.php

 

[jaybacca72]

i have had the opportuninty to train in it a bit with dr. gyi and he even wanted to have me fight for him in a light weight division in his tourney,the training is hard and very similar to thai boxing.
later
jay

 

[arnisador]

My 1976 "Kick Boxing Muay-Thai: The Siamese Art of Un-Armed Combat" by Hardy Stockmann states that Muay Thai is practiced in Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia, and that:

Burmese boxing, different yet somewhat related, is locally called Muay-Pama. (pg.19)

On pg. 87 it is emphasized that in Laos and Cambodia Muay Thai is practiced "in its purest form" and it states that:

Burmese boxing, a very tough fighting style, is not identical with Muay-Thai but does have similarities. Records of matches held after World War II show a more or less even score. (pg.87)

(He is referring to matches between Thai boxers and Burmese boxers.)

 

[Cthulhu]

One thing I forgot to mention: the Draeger and Smith book explicitly listed Burmese boxing as being different from Bando.

Cthulhu

 

[arnisador]

Originally posted by Cthulhu

One thing I forgot to mention: the Draeger and Smith book explicitly listed Burmese boxing as being different from Bando.

Certainly bando includes more than just boxing techniques but I gather that you mean it's truly different. I understood Burmese boxing to be a subset of bando.

 

[migo]

The way I understand it, Lethwei (Burmese boxing, though I guess it's Myanmarian or something like that now) comes from the same roots as Muay Thai. Bando is derived more directly from Wushu.

 

[arnisador]

Originally posted by migo

Bando is derived more directly from Wushu.

I hadn't heard this! It wouldn't be surprising though. That's the case with many Indochinese arts (well, more-or-less directly).

 

[Cthulhu]

Originally posted by migo

The way I understand it, Lethwei (Burmese boxing, though I guess it's Myanmarian or something like that now) comes from the same roots as Muay Thai. Bando is derived more directly from Wushu.

I haven't heard this before. Can you perhaps give a reference for this info? I've seen Kuntao-Silat de Thoaurs (sp?) forms that have movements identical to Shaolin kung fu, which is in fact one of the primary (if not THE primary) influence.

migo = another Lovecraft fan?

Cthulhu

PS - oddly enough, the board is displaying fairly well in NS today. Hurm.

 

[migo]

of course He is the best author I have ever had the pleasure of reading his works, followed closely by Edgar Allan Poe.

I'm not sure where I read that. If I come across it again I'll let you know.

I can elaborate a bit more though: The Cambodians are making a big fuss about Muay Thai not being Thai and in fact being Cambodian, apparently there are 'caveman pictures' of people doing Muay Thai in Cambodian borders. What I get out of that is because the borders each of those countries has is not representative of the division of the countries before European colonization, we really don't know where boxing really comes from. What this probably also means is that seeing as Lethwei, Muay Thai, and other South East Asian boxing styles are so similar, they must have a common ancestor art.

I know much less about Bando, but it seems to be a martial art that is divided into different animal forms, ala Wushu (Kung Fu for people who understand that to mean Chinese Martial Art, it's actually a misnomer. Bruce Lee was talking about his 'Kung Fu' meaning hard work, or great skill, and people took it to mean his martial art.) I also read somewhere that it had influence from China, and now that I think about it a bit more, India, I hadn't remembered that before. Also, South East Asia was populated when the Chinese began migrating south, so it makes sense that their fighting styles would come from the Chinese.

 

[arnisador]

Originally posted by migo

The Cambodians are making a big fuss about Muay Thai not being Thai and in fact being Cambodian

See this thread for more on that.

 

[MTisGreat]

**** burmese boxing

 

[OULobo]

American Bando can be divided into parts. There are animal systems, much like wushu. The animals taught here are python, tiger, panter, viper, cobra, eagle, scorpion, bull and boar. The kickboxing is called lethaway and is very akin to Muay Thai. There is a type of grappling called Naban and a few meditative arts like Min Zin, Dhanda yoga and Letha Yoga. There are combatives and weapons systems and some advanced systems, the most common of which is the monk system. Truthfully I think these systems are all in Burma, but they are separatly taught when you are there. they are brought under the umbrella of American Bando for ease of teaching.