Wan Chai (fighter)

Wan Chai was born in 1972 to father U Pan Nyunt and mother Daw Khin May in Kawt Nwe, a village east of Kawkareik city in Kayin State.{{cite magazine|last=Oo Naing|first=Thet|date=October 1997|title=မြန်မာ့လက်ဝှေ့ လောကကြီးကို ကိုင်လှုပ်မည့် ကရင်ပြည်နယ်မြဝတီမြို့မှ လက်ဝှေ့ကျော် ဝမ်ချိုင်း|magazine=New Style Magazine No.55|pages=46–51}} He started his training initially with Myawaddy U Than Shwe, a former boxer well known with the arts in both Myanmar and Thailand himself.{{cite magazine|last=Tint Oo|first=Win|date=July 1999|title=မြဝတီဦးသန်းရွှေ၏ကိုယ်တွေ့ ရိုးရာလက်ဝှေ့နယ်မှဂမ္ဘီရပညာ|magazine=Nat Kha Ta Yaung Che (Starlight) Magazine|pages=217–219}}

Before his fame in Myanmar lethwei Wan Chai was already a veteran of the fight game with great experiences gained in Thailand.{{cite magazine|last=Oo Naing|first=Thet|date=October 1997|title=မြန်မာ့လက်ဝှေ့ လောကကြီးကို ကိုင်လှုပ်မည့် ကရင်ပြည်နယ်မြဝတီမြို့မှ လက်ဝှေ့ကျော် ဝမ်ချိုင်း|magazine=New Style Magazine No.55|pages=46–51}} In 1996, the Myanmar Traditional Lethwei Federation (MTLF), a branch of the Myanmar's Ministry of Health and Sports, created the Golden Belt Championship for rising talents which uses the tournament Lethwei rules, unlike the traditional Golden Belt.{{cite web |url=https://www.mdn.gov.mm/en/tun-tun-min-wins-myanmar-lethwei-world-championship|title=Tun Tun Min wins Myanmar Lethwei World Championship|date=19 August 2019|publisher=Myanmar Daily News}}{{cite web |last=Goyder|first=James |date=17 December 2014|url=http://fightland.vice.com/blog/the-burmese-kickboxing-style-of-lethwei-expands-into-singapore|title=The Burmese Kickboxing Style of Lethwei Expands Into Singapore |publisher=VICE Fightland}}

After returning to Myanmar, Wan Chai burst onto the scene and competed at the inaugural Golden Belt Championship which he won by defeating Aung Aung Tun.{{Cite magazine|last=Khin Win|first=Khin|date=14 May 1997|title=ဝမ်ချိုင်းနှင့် အောင်အောင်ထွန်း စိတ်မကျေပွဲ နွှဲသော်လည်း အရှံးအနိုင်မပေါ်|magazine=Sports Journal|pages=3}}{{Cite magazine|last=Khin Win|first=Khin|date=4 May 1997|title=အောင်အောင်ထွန်းနှင့် ဝမ်ချိုင် စိတ်မကျေပွဲ နွှဲတော့မည်|magazine=Sports Journal|pages=8}} In 1998, he challenged the reigning Myanmar Lethwei World Champion Shwe Du Wun. Wan Chai took the Openweight Lethwei Golden Belt title away from the champion within three rounds.{{Cite news|date=2 April 1998|title=Traditional boxing challenges conclude|work=The New Light of Myanmar|url=http://uzo.sakura.ne.jp/burma/nlm/nlm_data/nlm_1998/nlm_04_1998/n980402.htm|access-date=1 December 2020}} Wan Chai lost the title to Shan La Tway in a year later. After his retirement, Wan Chai made a commitment to support the Aung Myanmar lethwei club in 2016, which trained Daung Thi Chay, Lwann Chai, Saw George, Yan Linn Aung and Daung Phyu Lay at the time.{{Cite news|last=Sein Lwin|first=Maung|date=21 February 2016|title=အောင်မြန်မာရိုးရာလက်ဝှေ့ကလပ်မှ အနာဂတ်မျိုးဆက်သစ်လက်ဝှေ့ကြယ်ပွင့်များကို မွေးထုတ်သွားမည်း|work=Myanma Alinn Daily|url=https://www.burmalibrary.org/sites/burmalibrary.org/files/obl/docs21/mal%2021.2.16.pdf}} He transferred to several clubs but eventually ended up with the one carrying his own name. His most notable students are his son Lwann Chai and Thway Thit Win Hlaing.

In June 2001, the first international Lethwei event took place in Yangon with professional fighters from the United States facing Burmese fighters under full traditional Lethwei rules. Wan Chai was matched against American UFC veteran Doug Evans and the event was named International Myanmar traditional boxing challenge & Myanmar-Australia talent testing boxing competition in Yangon, Myanmar. In the first round, Evans was dropped to the floor with a knee strike to the lower abdomen while clinching{{Cite news|date=3 October 2006|title=Wan Chai vs Doug Evans - Lethwei fight|work=YouTube|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkPmwV_Fr5g}} and lost by referee stoppage (TKO).{{Cite web|date=2001|title=Myanmar Traditional Boxing... An Experience To Remember.|url=http://ikfkickboxing.com/Myanmar.htm|access-date=6 December 2020|website=International Kickboxing Federation}}{{Cite news|date=11 June 2001|title=Wan Chai knocks out Doug Evans|work=The New Light of Myanmar|url=http://uzo.sakura.ne.jp/burma/nlm/nlm_data/nlm_2001/nlm_06_2001/nlm_11_06_2001.htm}} Evans later claimed he was kneed in the groin by Wan Chai, however the official did not see the strike and the referee stoppage remained.{{Cite news|date=2 April 2006|title=ပဝါမကူ ရေမရှူစတမ်း ယှဥ်ပြိုင်ထိုးသတ်ကြမည့် မြန်မာ့ရိုးရာလက်ဝှေ့ ရွှေခါးပတ် ချန်ပီယံလုပွဲး|work=Kyemone|url=https://www.burmalibrary.org/DocsMirror/Mirror2006-04-02.pdf}}

• Championships
• Myanmar National Champion (1998, 1999)
• Golden Belt Champion (1996)
• Other championships
• 2001 challenge fight belt holder

{{Fight record start|norec=y|title=Professional Lethwei record|record=69 wins, 3 losses, 8 draws}}

|- style="background:#c5d2ea;"

| 2012-01-08 || Draw || align="left" |{{flagicon|MYA}} Shwe War Tun || Dagon Shwe Aung Lan 2012 || Yangon, Myanmar || Draw || 3 || 3:00

|- style="background:#c5d2ea;"

| 2009-04-04 || Draw || align="left" |{{flagicon|Myanmar|1974}} Zarni Sin Yine || Dagon Shwe Aung Lan 2009 || Yangon, Myanmar || Draw || 3 || 3:00

|- style="background:#c5d2ea;"

| 2009-02-06 || Draw || align="left" |{{flagicon|Myanmar|1974}} Shwe War Tun || Myaw Sin Island Challenge Fights || Yangon, Myanmar || Draw || 3 || 3:00

|- style="background:#c5d2ea;"

| 2009-00-00 || Draw || align="left" |{{flagicon|Myanmar|1974}} Saw Thae Aung || Lethwei Challenge Fights || Myanmar || Draw || 5 || 3:00

|- style="background:#fbb;"

| 2006-01-26 || Loss || align="left" |{{flagicon|Myanmar|1974}} Lone Chaw || Myeik city Lethwei Challenge Fights || Myeik, Myanmar || TKO || 3 ||

|- style="background:#c5d2ea;"

| 2005-04-03 || Draw || align="left" |{{flagicon|Myanmar|1974}} Lone Chaw|| City F.M Aung Lan Tournament, Myanmar Convention Center || Yangon, Myanmar || Draw || 5 || 3:00{{Cite news|last=Win Lay|first=Thein|date=4 April 2005|title=ရိုးရာလက်ဝှေ့စိန်ခေါ်ပွဲ နာမည်ကြီးဝမ်ချိုင်းနှင့် လုံးချောသရေကျ|work=Myanma Alinn Daily|url=https://www.burmalibrary.org/docsMA2005/MA2005-04-05.pdf}}

|- style="background:#fbb;"

| 2004-06-13 || Loss || align="left" |{{flagicon|Myanmar|1974}} Shwe Sai|| Challenge Fights, Thuwunna Stadium || Yangon, Myanmar || TKO || 3 || 2:52{{Cite news|last=Win Lay|first=Thein|date=14 June 2004|title=ရိုးရာလက်ဝှေ့လက်ရည်စစ်လူရွေးပွဲနောက်ဆုံပွဲစဥ် ဝမ်ချိုင်းကိုရွှေဆိုင်းအလဲထိုးပြီးချန်ပီယံဘွဲ့ဆက်ထိန်း|work=Myanma Alinn Daily|url=https://www.burmalibrary.org/docsMA2004/MA2004-06-14.pdf}}

|- style="background:#cfc;"

| 2004-06-05 || Win || align="left" |{{flagicon|Myanmar|1974}} Lone Chaw || Myeik city Lethwei Challenge Fights || Myeik, Myanmar || KO || 3 || 2:50

|- style="background:#c5d2ea;"

| 2003-06-01 || Draw || align="left" |{{flagicon|Myanmar|1974}} Shan Lay Thway || Challenge Fights, Thuwunna Stadium || Yangon, Myanmar || Draw || 5 || 3:00

|- style="background:#cfc;"

| 2001-06-09 || Win || align="left" |{{flagicon|USA}} Doug Evans|| International Challenge Fights, Thuwunna Stadium || Yangon, Myanmar || TKO || 1 ||

|-

! style=background:white colspan=9 |{{small|Wins challenge fight belt}}

|- style="background:#c5d2ea;"

| 2001-04-30 || Draw || align="left" |{{flagicon|Myanmar|1974}} Shan Lay Thway || Challenge Fights, Ba Htoo Football field || Mandalay, Myanmar || Draw || 5 || 3:00

|- style="background:#fbb;"

| 1999-00-00 || Loss || align="left" |{{flagicon|Myanmar|1974}} Shan Lay Thway || Champions Challenge, Thuwunna Stadium || Yangon, Myanmar || TKO || 1 ||

|-

! style=background:white colspan=9 |{{small|Lost Openweight Lethwei World Title - Wan Chai contracted malaria shortly before the fight}}

|- style="background:#cfc;"

| 1998-00-00 || Win || align="left" |{{flagicon|Myanmar|1974}} Win Naing Tun || Challenge Fights, Ba Htoo Football field || Mandalay, Myanmar || KO || 2 ||

|- style="background:#cfc;"

| 1998-00-00 || Win || align="left" |{{flagicon|Myanmar|1974}} Shwe Du Wun || Hpayarkone village Challenge Fights || Hpa-an Township, Myanmar || KO || ||

|- style="background:#cfc;"

| 1998-04-01 || Win || align="left" |{{flagicon|Myanmar|1974}} Shwe Du Wun|| 51st Mon National Day, Aung San Indoor Stadium || Yangon, Myanmar || KO || 3 || 1:04{{Cite news|date=2 April 1998|title=Traditional boxing challenges conclude|work=The New Light of Myanmar|url=http://uzo.sakura.ne.jp/burma/nlm/nlm_data/nlm_1998/nlm_04_1998/n980402.htm}}

|-

! style=background:white colspan=9 |{{small|Wins Openweight Lethwei World Title}}

|- style="background:#c5d2ea;"

| 1997-11-06 || Draw || align="left" |{{flagicon|Myanmar|1974}} Shwe Du Wun || Challenge Fights, Ba Htoo Football field || Mandalay, Myanmar || Draw || 5 || 3:00

|- style="background:#c5d2ea;"

| 1997-07-09 || Draw || align="left" |{{flagicon|Myanmar|1974}} Shwe Du Wun || Challenge Fights, Ba Htoo Football field || Mandalay, Myanmar || Draw || 12 || 3:00

|- style="background:#c5d2ea;"

| 1997-05-05 || Draw || align="left" |{{flagicon|Myanmar|1974}} Aung Aung Tun || (52nd) Armed Forces Day Challenge Fights, Ba Htoo Football field || Mandalay, Myanmar || Draw || 7 || 3:00

|- style="background:#cfc;"

| 1997-00-00 || Win || align="left" |{{flagicon|Myanmar|1974}} Moe Palae || Lethwei Challenge Fights || Hpa-an Township, Myanmar || KO || 6 ||

|- style="background:#cfc;"

| 1997-02-25 || Win || align="left" |{{flagicon|Myanmar|1974}} Shwe War Tun || Kawt Gun village Challenge Fights || Hlaingbwe Township, Myanmar || KO || 4 ||

|- style="background:#cfc;"

| 1997-02-03 || Win || align="left" |{{flagicon|Myanmar|1974}} (Thar Si) Maung Maung Gyi || Lethwei Challenge Fights, Aung San Indoor Stadium || Yangon, Myanmar || KO || 4 ||

|- style="background:#cfc;"

| 1997-02-02 || Win || align="left" |{{flagicon|Myanmar|1974}} Aung Aung Tun || Golden Belt Championship, Aung San Indoor Stadium|| Yangon, Myanmar || KO || 4 || {{Cite news|date=2 April 2006|title=ပဝါမကူ ရေမရှူစတမ်း ယှဥ်ပြိုင်ထိုးသတ်ကြမည့် မြန်မာ့ရိုးရာလက်ဝှေ့ ရွှေခါးပတ် ချန်ပီယံလုပွဲး|work=Kyemone|url=https://www.burmalibrary.org/DocsMirror/Mirror2006-04-02.pdf}}

|-

! style=background:white colspan=9 |{{small|Wins Golden Belt Championship}}

|- style="background:#cfc;"

| 1997-01-09 || Win || align="left" |{{flagicon|THA}} Kittichai Kiatbusaba || International Challenge Fights || Chiang Mai, Thailand || TKO || 4 ||

|- style="background:#fbb;"

| 1995-00-00 || Loss || align="left" |{{flagicon|THA}} Somdang Nongkhai || International Challenge Fights || Thailand || TKO || ||

|- style="background:#c5d2ea;"

| 1995-00-00 || Draw || align="left" |{{flagicon|THA}} Kolalek Lookphrayapichai || Burma-Thai Challenge Fights || Thailand || Draw || 5 ||

|-

{{end}}

{{reflist|30em}}

{{s-start}}

{{s-ach}}

{{S-bef|before=Shwe Du Wun}}

{{S-ttl|title=Openweight Lethwei World Champion|years=April 1, 1998 – 1999}}

{{s-aft|after=Shan Lay Thway}}

{{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wan Chai}}

Category:Living people

Category:1972 births

Category:Burmese Karen people

Category:Burmese Lethwei practitioners

Category:People from Kayin State