Lone Chaw finds a gap in his younger opponent's defences to land a savage straight-right punch. Pic: Aye Zaw Myo

MYANMAR’S freeweight traditional boxing Champion Lone Chaw produced another crushing performance to knock out his latest challenger, Yan Gyi Aung, in their bloody battle on August 10.

Lone Chaw and Yan Gyi Aung, the middleweight champion, had met two times in the past, with both fights ending in draws.

But this time the five-round battle royale was a display of powerful and technical boxing.

Yan Gyi Aung started spectacularly by landing a flying right knee into Lone Chaw’s temple, leaving the 32-year-old champ seeing stars and fighting the referee’s 10-count.

He fought back with all of his power but the younger fighter displayed superior technique and ended the round on top.

Round two started in similar circumstances to the first, with Yan Gyi Aung landing heavy right hooks to Lone Chaw’s face and forcing him to ask for a two-minute break.

All about the stadium fans said that it looked like the champ might be going down, especially since Yan Gyi Aung’s technique appeared so perfect.

But Lone Chaw recovered his speed in the third round – setting up a bruising round in which both fighters traded painful hits. Lone Chaw started the tit-for-tat, dishing out a couple of straight right punches to Yan Gyi Aung’s face, who responded with a jumping kick that hit Lone Chaw in the back of his head.

After shaking off the pain, Lone Chaw launched a flying knee assault that connected with his younger opponent’s head, quickly following it a one-two combination of punches to push Yan Gyi Aung backward before capping the blitz with another straight right punch. Yan Gyi Aung was left reeling but was saved by the bell that ended the round.

After the break the challenger returned to catch Lone Chaw with his own one-two before the two grappled, exchanging punches, knees and kicks whenever the opportunity arose. Both fighters were clearly tired and sloppily slugged their way through the rest of the round.

After weathering Yan Gyi Aung’s early attacks it seemed unlikely that Lone Chaw would be able to muster enough energy to land a knock-out blow.
Conversely Yan Gyi Aung seemed too tired to follow up his earlier efforts and finish the fight decisively.

But nobody told Lone Chaw that, and after two minutes into the fifth and final round he hit Yan Gyi Aung with a right jab to unbalance the challenger, another straight right punch and an elbow that sent him sprawling on the canvas.
Yan Gyi Aung was able to regain his feet but was clearly unable to control himself anymore and fell back down almost immediately.

One grinning fan could barely contain himself after the fight.

“That was non-stop fighting and completely worth the K7000 I paid for the ticket. Both fighters were good and we all thought Yan Gyi Aung would come out on top. He was crying after he went down.

“If they meet again it won’t be easy at all for Lone Chaw.”