Blood pours from Shan Lay Thway’s face during his tough five-round draw with Lone Chaw last Friday night. Pic: Hein Latt Aung

A BRUTAL fight between freeweight champion Lone Chaw and former champion Shan Lay Thway last Friday ended in a draw, with each taking home K900,000 from their five-round match.

Wild cheering broke out as the fight started and enthused spectators were not content to watch the fight sitting down – many stood up to catch the action.

Just after the bell rang Lone Chaw launched a withering series of punches that opened a deep cut just beneath Shan Lay Thway’s left eye. Even though he’s only 29 years old, Shan Lay Thway has been out of the ring for five years and came into the bout at about 90 kilograms, some 14kg heavier than 32-year-old Lone Chaw.

The extra girth and injury meant that Shan Lay Thway was slow moving around the ring and spent most of the first round avoiding the typically rapid Lone Chaw.

The second round was also one-sided, with Lone Chaw pummelling his opponent’s face with punches that elicited even more claret.

But in the third round the former champion stunned the crowd and Lone Chaw, knocking the latter to the canvas. As the crowd roared their approval, Lone Chaw called for a two-minute break to recover.

If anyone thought the knock-down was the prelude to an upset they were wrong; Lone Chaw re-entered the fight like the champion he is and used his superior speed and movement to launch another blitz on his portly opponent. The end result was another deep cut in Shan Lay Thway’s forehead and more blood on the canvas.

But for all the blows Lone Chaw landed in the fourth and fifth rounds he couldn’t find a knock-out, even a trademark flying knee delivered in the last 60 seconds of the fight was off the mark.

After the match, his coach, U Win Zin Oo said he was pleased with his fighter’s performance.

“I’m quite satisfied with Lone Chaw’s performance tonight because he did what he had to do, even though he’s not in peak form,” U Win Zin Oo told The Myanmar Times.

“Before this match he had already fought three tough fights in only 17 days and came into this with only a nine-day break.

“To be frank, I haven’t had enough time to train him but he has done a great job in this situation but his opponent was a great fighter also,” he said.
After the fight Lone Chaw paid respect to his opponent.

“He was a tough boxer and even though I hit him with a lot of punches and kicks, he kept coming forward to fight me. It was incredible,” Lone Chaw said.
However, the champion admitted that his schedule in the past month has left his below his best.

“I’ve had three fights before this match and I’m a bit exhausted. Every time I hit him in the face my hand hurt a lot,” he said.

The audience praised Shan Lay Thway for his endurance.
“He put a good fight against Lone Chaw and his ability to keep going was marvellous. He took a lot of damage and his face was bleeding a lot but he never gave up. That was fantastic,” said Ko Maung Maung.

“Both fighters are very experienced and that was an excellent bout, I hope there will be a rematch soon,” he said.