Kickboxer Thura Ye Aung (R) trains wearing some of the protective gear he will be required to don at the 24th SEA Games in Thailand next month. SEA Games veteran Win Htun rests on his head in the background.

TWO of the biggest names in Myanmar kickboxing will be absent from the Southeast Asian Games in Thailand next month because there is no weight category for them to compete in.

While the team of seven kickboxers prepares for the transition to Muay Thai at the December 6-15 Games in Korat, northeastern Thailand, freeweight champion Lone Chaw and his foremost Myanmar rival Zam Htoo have been sidelined.

Both fighters weigh over 75 kilograms while the heaviest weight division at the SEA Games, which is only open to amateur kickboxers, is welter-weight.

Competing next month will be Soe Moe Hein, Shwe Kyi San, Sit Thway, Hein Nyi Nyi, Win Htun, Tway Mashaung and Thura Ye Aung. Win Htun and Shwe Kyi San both competed in the 2005 SEA Games in the Philippines, where they won bronze medals.

Team manager U Win Zin Oo said the boxers would need to get used to fighting with protective gear and a points system that will have a lot more influence on outcomes than in Myanmar, where the last man standing is usually the winner.

“I’m very aware that my boxers can endure a lot and they’re good enough to take on any opponent, but when competing in Muay Thai one thing we have to realise is that it’s not a bare-knuckle fight,” he said.

Whereas in Myanmar fighters usually only wrap a strip of cloth around their knuckles, under SEA Games rules kickboxers will be wearing gloves, body padding, shin guards and elbow covers.

Bouts in Thailand will also consist of four two-minute rounds, compared to the five three-minute rounds Myanmar boxers trained for at the recent Golden Belt Championships in Yangon.

“It is important for our boxers to familiarise themselves with the equipment they will be fighting with,” said U Win Zin Oo, who coached Lone Chaw to the freeweight Golden Belt title in September.

“According to the rules of Muay Thai, it’s more of a technical fight in which it is important to score points. So Myanmar kickboxers need to be clever when they fight because they’re used to fights that rely heavily on endurance.”

Major Kyaw San, secretary of the Myanmar Traditional Boxing Federation, said Myanmar’s greatest opposition would once again come from the Thais.

“At the last SEA Games in the Philippines we won four bronze medals – all of our fighters lost to boxers from Thailand,” he said.