Lethwei, Myanmar’s national sport, is one of the most brutal striking styles in the world—allowing bare knuckle punches, elbows, kicks, knees and headbutts. Traditionally, the fights are 5 rounds, and are automatically declared draws if there is no KO. Additionally each corner is allowed one two minute time out per fight to revive a KO’d fighter (the only restriction is that a time out cannot be used in the final round).
Dave Leduc is the first foreigner to have won the Golden Belt in Lethwei and has been defending it since 2016. Bloody Elbow sat down with him ahead of his fight with Seth Baczynski for the World Lethwei Championship cruiserweight belt, which will air on UFC Fight Pass at 7:15am ET/4:15am PT on Friday, August 2nd.