Dave Leduc claims he has been poisoned at a Thai restaurant in Europe. The lethwei star posted a photo of himself in hospital and accused Thai spies of having put something in his food.
Leduc was supposedly banned from entering Thailand after criticizing Buakaw Banchamek and questioning whether the legendary tale of Nai Khanom Tom was actually true. He was also banned from competing by one of the major sanctioning bodies for lethwei after making these comments, although the sport appears to have ground to a halt since the coup.
Leduc still has a sizeable fan following in Myanmar and regularly posts updates in Burmese. He told his Facebook followers that,
I think the Thai restaurant poisoned me. I have noticed that the Thai spies who do not like me are already in Europe.
Outspoken opponent
Leduc has not lived in Myanmar for several years. He was an outspoken opponent of the military coup who frequently declared his support for the protesters.
These days he is based in Turkey and earlier in the week he told his Facebook fans that he was going to eat at a Thai restaurant. Leduc appeared to be joking when he wrote,
Today I got invited to eat at a Thai restaurant, they don’t know that I’m banned from Thailand. I just hope I don’t get poisoned. If I die, I love you all.
Not so funny
Leduc posed for a photo outside the Ubon Thai restaurant in Kadriye along with the jokey caption about potentially being poisoned. Three days later he shared another photo, this one showed the lethwei star in a hospital bed.
Leduc appears to believe that he was poisoned in the Thai restaurant although it isn’t clear quite how serious the accusation is. He appears to relish feuding with Thai netizens and recently mocked up a photo of Buakaw to look like his baby.
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Stirring up tensions
It is nearly three years since Leduc’s last fight, a lethwei match with fellow American Cyrus Washington in Wyoming. He remains very active on social media and appears set to make a comeback.
He plans to travel to Cambodia to fight Prom Samnang in a Kun Khmer match. In advance of this trip Leduc attempted to stir up tensions between Cambodia and Thailand writing that the latter country had,
Completely rewritten its history with no evidence, tells blatant historical lies, disrespects Myanmar with the fake story of Nai Khanomtom every year, they boycotted Cambodia for the SEA games like cowards, even Sak Yant tattoos (People call them Thai tattoos) are in fact written in an old Cambodian dialect.
Courting controversy
Leduc has also courted controversy by opposing Covid-19 regulations and vaccine mandates. He might not be spending much time in South East Asia at the moment but the Canadian remains a very divisive figure in the region.
With 1.9 million Facebook followers Leduc clearly has a lot of fans but he has also made plenty of enemies. The 31 year old suspects some of them might have poisoned him at a Thai restaurant in Turkey.
