Yoroizuka Saw Paing

* Anime
* Ashura
* Omega

*"**LET THEM CUT YOUR FLESH SO YOU CAN KICK THEIR ASS!!!!**"*
— Saw Paing while fighting Mikazuchi Rei

**Yoroizuka Saw Paing** (鎧 (よろい) 塚 (づか)  サーパイン, *Yoroizuka Sa-pain*; "*Saw Paing Yoroizuka*"), also known as **The Howling Fighting Spirit** (吼 (ほ) える闘 (とう) 魂 (こん) , *Hoeru Tōkon*), is the affiliated fighter of Village of the Dawn in the Kengan Annihilation Tournament.

## Appearance

Saw Paing is a Burmese fighter with a lean and tall physique. He arguably appears much younger than he is, with a youthful and hairless face and spiky, voluminous brown hair and hazel eyes. True to his personality, he often sports a determined and enthusiastic expression with wide eyes and a perpetual grin.

During bouts, he wears nothing except red shorts, a mongkol (also known as a mongkhon) and a pra jiad on both arms, being his headband and armbands respectively traditionally worn during Muay Thai bouts to ascribe confidence and luck to the fighter. Outside of bouts, he prefers to wears shorts and Hawaiian shirts.

## Personality

Saw Paing is the polar opposite of his self-proclaimed rival, Kaolan Wongsawat; while the latter is calm and apathetic, Saw Paing is hot-blooded, brash, and easily excitable. He is a frequent shouter and yells loud enough to drown out the announcer on the mic in a crowded stadium. His adoptive father, Sanemitsu, casually states that Saw Paing is not a very intelligent person, though he does have (a certain degree of) common sense. Despite his hot-blooded nature, Saw Paing is surprisingly understanding, such as delaying fights with Kaolan if the latter has an appointment.

His rivalry with Kaolan is seemingly one-sided; after Kaolan beat him in a cross-border match at age 16, he frequently sneaks across the border to challenge him to a rematch, even climbing up Kaolan's high-rise apartment to do so, much to the latter's annoyance.

## History

At the age of 16, Saw Paing participated in the annual cross-border match between Myanmar and Thailand. There, he encountered Kaolan for the first time and was defeated in their fight by judge's decision.

Two years before the events of *Kengan Ashura*, Saw Paing was made aware of his brother Ne Win Paing's death. It was due to the latter's participation in the Kengan matches; Yoroizuka Sanemitsu also revealing he was aware of their village's plight. Saw Paing positively brushed it off before asking Sanemitsu for a favor of moving the people of his village into the village Sanemitsu owned. He then offered his services to Sanemitsu and entered the Kengan matches himself.

## Plot

### *Kengan Ashura*

Onboard the S.S. Kengan, Saw Paing surprised an exasperated Kaolan by his presence as an affiliated fighter in the tournament. Over the days leading up to the opening day of the tournament, Saw Paing hung around with a stoicly indifferent Kaolan.

During the first round, Saw Paing made a hot-blooded reply to Kaolan's unimpressed comment about Raian while watching the Kure Raian-Mokichi Robinson fight. Later, as the Murobuchi Gozo-Wakatsuki Takeshi fight was about to start, upon Kaolan asking what he made of the fight, Saw Paing replied that he was fired up. Before his first round match, Saw Paing told Sanemitsu he was all fired up. Being announced, Saw Paing leapt out into the arena, yelling so loud that he drowned out the commentator and the audience. Representing the Village of the Dawn in the Kengan Annihilation Tournament he fought against Karo Yoshinari. Tanking the powerful fisherman's assaults, Saw Paing was eventually victorious.

In the second round he fought against Mikazuchi Rei. Despite Rei's incredible speed, Saw Paing withstood his opponent's assaults with his incredibly strong skeleton by curling up, neutralising his weakpoints. Going on the offensive, Saw Paing attacked using his Hammer of Burma technique, but Rei countered using a Fa jin technique, causing Saw Paing to hit his chin onto Rei's head, injuring himself greatly. With Rei landing a second attack on to Saw Paing's chin, the Burmese man was consequently knocked out. After Saw Paing woke up from his fight, Kaolan tried to reassure him about his defeat, but he was left in utter disgust when Saw Paing told him he couldn't fight anymore. Soon after, he watched Kaolan's fight against Kanoh Agito while drinking a bottle of JD. Kaolan's powerfully determined display against the Fang served to reinvigorate Saw Paing's fighting spirit after the close of the second round.

After the second round, Saw Paing assisted Katahara Metsudo in stopping Hayami Katsumasa's "revolution", defeating some of the Guardians. He was later seen excitedly watching the final matches of the tournament along with the other fighters who had lost.

### *Kengan Omega*

During those two years after the annihilation tournament, Saw Paing realized his weakness of always charging head first without a plan since his loss against Mikazuchi Rei. So he took a break from the Kengan matches in order to improve his fighting techniques from the basics.

Saw Paing was still affiliated with The Village of Dawn but they refused to dispatch any fighters, so he couldn't enter the Kengan Association VS Purgatory Tournament. When the competition finally started Saw Paing and Karo Yoshinari where seen rooting for Kaolan as he was fighting in the first round against Carlos Medel.

During the next two year time skip, Saw Paing fought and lost to Mokichi Robinson.

## Power & Abilities

Saw Paing is a practitioner of **lethwei**, a particularly brutal martial art from Myanmar. Often compared with muay Thai, one of lethwei's major differences is its rule set: no protective gear, with exception for hand wraps and occasionally tape, and headbutts are allowed. This lack of padding means that fractures are a common occurrence. With this constant cycle of fracturing and repairing, Saw Paing's bones have become so dense that they've become near indestructible, allowing him to withstand and deliver powerful blows with no fear for fractures.

This fracturing and repairing also applies to Saw Paign's skull. Because headbutts are not only allowed, but also a main staple of attack, Saw Paing's skull is the strongest part of his entire skeletal structure. Described as hard as a kabuto, Kaolan notes that Saw Paing's skull is the "strongest skull of humanity". His hard skull gifts both a potent defense and fearsome offensive power; prior to the tournament, of his 17 victories, 8 were won from a headbutt and 6 of those headbutts came as counters. He remains the only fighter against whom Kaolan Wongsawat won by points, and not by knockout, purely due to his resilience. Hanafusa Hajime also noted that, because of the sheer rigidity of his skeleton, his muscles are able to clench harder than ever without repercussion, enabling him to hit that much harder and nullify vital attacks; he won't come out of assaults unscathed, but the damaged will be halved at least.. Despite Saw Paing often being incredibly hot-blooded, he has shown some tactical prowess when fighting.

Since the Kengan Annihilation Tournament, Saw Paing has evolved as a fighter: He vastly improved the technique of his strikes, as well as becoming more tactical in his approach to combat, even managing to counter the assault of a skilled fighter like Cosmo.

### Hammer of Burma

The **Hammer of Burma** (ビルマの鉄槌 (てっつい) , *Biruma no Tettsui*) is Saw Paing's most powerful attack, a headbutt wherein Saw Paing fully pulls back his head before fully slamming his head into the opponent. During his first use of the Hammer of Burma, he missed but combined with his exceedingly durable skull, left a massive crater in the floor, a sign of its destructive power. Saw Paing typically uses this move as a counter.

There's a **Short Version** of the technique that omits pulling back his head and only launches forward. It was still powerful enough to break Cosmo's hand.

## Notes & Trivia

* Despite being Kaolan's self-proclaimed rival, he hasn't fought him all that much, with Kaolan usually managing to weasel his way out of fighting him. Saw Paing doesn't actually mind that much however and will wait for a time that suits Kaolan.
	+ Incidentally, all of the fights the two have had after their first one has ended in a draw (because Kaolan keeps forfeiting the fight partway through, sick of Saw Paing's tenacity).
	+ It was Saw Paing and his indestructible bones who inspired Kaolan's partial training to his right hand.
* Burmese names consist of between two and four syllables, and when written in English, these syllables are usually spaced out. There are no surnames. Therefore, "Saw Paing" is his given name and full Burmese name, not his first name and middle name. "Yoroizuka" is the surname given to him when he was adopted into a Japanese family.
* His family has supported Yoroizuka Sanemitsu for generations. Saw Paing's father, Pa Paing, was one of the greatest affiliated fighters in the 1980s and his late older brother, Ne Win Paing, was a mighty fighter in his own right before dying.
* Saw Paing enjoys cooking. He also does not shout when he is cooking as he has to concentrate so he doesn't cut or burn himself.
* He has been known to sing softer ballads at karaoke.
* Saw Paing's able to sleep anywhere, presumably without any loss of comfort.
* Saw Paing's theme in the anime is *Verum cur non audimus* by Regnum Caelorum Et Gehenna.
* Oddly enough, Yoroizuka should not be wearing a mongkhon (head band) and pra jiads (arm bands) due to this uniform not existing in lethwei, but rather, in muay Thai. Albeit, the similarities between these two martial arts may prompt one to mix up their uniform as well.
* In Burmese script, Saw Paing's name would be spelled "စောပိုင်".

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Chapter 148
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Saw Paing's profile
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Chapter 83
4. ↑ *17 wins prior to the Kengan Annihilation Tournament(Ch83)(Ep15)
1 win during the tournament against Karo Yoshinari(Ch87)(Ep15)*
5. ↑ *1 known match win against Sekibayashi Jun(Chapter 164)*
6. ↑ *3 wins against Nam Nhat, The Falcon & Imai Cosmo in the Berserker Bowl(Chapter 164)*
7. ↑ *1 known match loss against Kaolan Wongsawat(Ch84)*
8. ↑  After defeat to Mikazuchi Rei during the Kengan Annihilation Tournament(Ch151)
9. ↑ *2 known match losses against Sekibayashi Jun(Chapter 164)*
10. ↑ *1 match loss against Mokichi Robinson(Chapter 184)*
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Chapter 149
12. ↑ 4-koma: Saw Paing & Kaolan
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Chapter 0-3
14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Chapter 84
15. ↑ Chapter 147
16. ↑ Chapter 85
17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Chapter 150
18. ↑ Kengan Omega, Ch. 171
19. ↑ Kaolan Wongsawat's profile
20. ↑ 4-koma: Lethwei Cooking
21. ↑ 4-koma: Karaoke 2