Aung La N Sang is excited to one day reclaim gold.
Aung La N Sang is excited to finally make his return to the ONE Championship circle after back-to-back title fight losses to Reinier De Ridder in the light heavyweight division. For the second time in 2021, La N Sang will look to re-establish himself as one of the best fighters the promotion has to offer when he takes on Leonardo Atadies at ONE: Battleground on Friday night.
The losses to De Ridder were La N Sang’s first since January 2017. After losing to Vitaly Bigdash, he fought him in an immediate rematch in June 2017.
After then, La N Sang became a two-division champion, defeating the likes of Alain Ngalani and Ken Hasegawa during his seven-fight winning streak.
Aung La N Sang’s preparation has been a learning experience
His last victory came against MMA veteran and ex-UFC heavyweight contender, Brandon Vera, in December 2019. Despite the recent setbacks with consecutive championship defeats, La N Sang feels that he has dealt with the losses well and looks forward to a fresh start.
“I work a lot on my wrestling, my grappling,” La N Sang said during his pre-fight scrum. “I work with a lot of different body types that give me a hard time. And just choosing really tough rounds and working with a lot of great guys at Sanford [MMA] helped me. And working late nights with my trainers and my coaches and trying to fix my holes just to become a better overall mixed martial artist. Like I said, you know, I lost, but it’s okay. I’m learning from the losses, and I’m trying to get better. We train and we spar so hard. Like, these fights, they don’t take a lot out of me because of the preparation. So I just want to become a higher-level performer and a better mixed martial artist.”
La N Sang enters the bout at 26-12, 1 NC and looks to get back in title contention with a win.