MMA fighter Phoe Thaw, who competes in the ONE Championship featherweight division, was seriously injured by a bomb blast in Yangon, Myanmar on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Myanmar, known as Burma until 1989, is currently in crisis.<\/p>\n
On February 1, the Southeast Asian country’s military \u2014 referred to as the Tatmadaw locally\u2014 detained elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and several other members of the country’s ruling National League for Democracy (NLD).<\/p>\n
The Tatmadaw attempted to justify its actions by claiming the NLD’s November election win was fraudulent. However, Myanmar’s election commission has emphasized<\/a> that there is no evidence to support those allegations.<\/p>\n Since the Tatmadaw’s power-grab, which has officially been labeled a coup by the United States government, the streets of Myanmar’s biggest cities have erupted in protests. Those protests have been met with extreme violence. Clashes between the Tatmadaw, armed rebel groups like the Karen National Union (KNU) \u2014 who are reportedly protecting civilians\u00a0 \u2014 and unarmed protestors, have left hundreds<\/a> of people dead and countless more injured.<\/p>\n Phoe Thaw is among the latest to be affected by this violence.<\/p>\n A report on the military-owned Myawaddy TV network claimed<\/a> that the fighter<\/a> was injured while building a homemade bomb in his Yangon-based gym, Team PT. However, multiple sources close to Phoe Thaw told BJPENN.com that those allegations are unlikely to be true.<\/p>\n Other theories put forth by local sources suggest that Phoe Thaw was hurt by an unrelated explosion, or that he was targeted by the Tatmadaw because he is both a local celebrity and an outspoken critic of their takeover. According to one source, Phoe Thaw was concerned after several strangers showed up at his gym earlier this week, taking photographs and looking around.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A post shared by Phoe”Bushido”Thaw (@phoethaw)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n