Aung La N Sang and Leandro Ataides on their ONE: Battleground bout
Aung La N Sang and Leandro Ataides collide inside the ONE Circle in a high-stakes co-main event bout.
This contest goes down at ONE: Battleground on Friday, July 30th, and emanates from Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Aung La N Sang and Leandro Ataides
I spoke with both of these middleweight contenders at the ONE: Battleground media day. Transcriptions from my interactions with these combatants can be found below.
Aung La N Sang excerpt
You specifically mentioned that this one is a three-rounder and also you said you really want to apply that pressure.
I mean you always really bring it but just those two factors considered, do we see the most action-intensive Aung La that we’ve seen in the ONE Circle in a while?
“For sure, like the last couple of fights, I felt like I was too on the defensive end. It really just wasn’t a fun fight, you know. It felt more like a grappling match than anything. Really hope Leandro (Ataides) throws down and we can make a good fight. I want him to really try to hurt me. I want to make it exciting for the fans.”
I saw the Instagram pad work video you had there with Henri Hooft the other day. And in the comment section, Sodiq Yusuff was saying the beard adds about plus 15 power on the stats.
Can you confirm or deny?
“My boy Sodiq. He’s right, man. It’s all business here (gestures to hair) and savage around here (gestures to beard).”
Leandro Ataides excerpt
You’re a former middleweight title challenger within the promotion. I mean you’re fighting the former middleweight champion here.
Where do you think a victory here puts you in relation to getting another crack at the ONE middleweight title?
“So, of course. I mean, I’m ready to be the champ. Of course I’m super, super excited to do this fight against him. So he’s of course a great fighter. He’s a former two-division champion. So just excited to have to do my job. Then show to everyone what I have to do.”
Your last defeat there was to Reinier de Ridder. But it seems like per some photos going around on social media that you’ve been training with him as of late. He has a pair of victories over Aung La pretty recently.
What insights have you gotten from RDR (current ONE middleweight and light heavyweight champion) for this upcoming fight?
“Yeah, I was with de Ridder. So I was just training for a while. I moved to the Netherlands and I took advantage to train with him. It was nice and he’s a great fighter.”
