Aung La N Sang on Sanford MMA culture and 2021 goals

Interview with Aung La N Sang above

ONE on TNT IV Media Day went down last night ahead of the huge card on Wednesday, April 28th. The stacked martial arts event emanates from Singapore Indoor Stadium.

Both the lead and main cards feature compelling bouts with a myriad of combatants taking part in media Q&A ahead of their respective bouts. I spoke with the reigning ONE light heavyweight world champion Aung La N Sang during his session.

Aung La N Sang

I was just curious because I was talking to Rory MacDonald about his adaptation with having to do an opponent switch on short notice in his own right, your Sanford MMA teammate there.

I’m kind of curious what facets of the Sanford MMA gym culture breeds that confidence to make rapid adjustments like that?

“Every day, we train mixed martial arts. So, the changing opponent doesn’t really affect us. You can just go down the list of guys in our gym. You will see guys that are really strong in their striking. Guys that are really strong in their Jiu-Jitsu. Guys that are really strong in their wrestling. We train with each and every one of them every day. So for us to make that adjustment, it’s not hard. We don’t bring in a kickboxer when we fight a kickboxer. We don’t bring in somebody out of our camp to fight a body type or a style type.”

“Rory is one of the best mixed martial arts artists as far as the transitions go. When he mixes up his striking, his wrestling, and his Jiu-Jitsu, he is a problem for anybody. So as far as the adjustments go, it doesn’t matter. We have great guys in our team and the energy is amazing. So it doesn’t matter who we fight like I said. At my peak and my prime, I’m going to be a bad matchup for anyone at either middleweight or light heavyweight.”

ONE on TNT IV Media Day

I’m kind of curious if you get the ideal outcome here, this is a bit of a hypothetical, but do you have a preference between maybe say a (Reinier) de Ridder trilogy for the middleweight belt or would a (Vitaly) Bigdash trilogy take preference? Kind of just closing the book on that saga.

“Well, it doesn’t matter. I’m going to compete two or three more times this year. So I want everybody.”

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Dylan Bowker
I've been enamored with combat sports for as long as I can remember. I've hosted MMA talk shows Lights Out and Pure Fight Radio with featured guests like Jens Pulver, Roy Nelson, Miesha Tate, Mark Coleman, and more. I've been an MMA broadcaster for XFFC as well as BTC and have done play by play commentary on live pay per view on GFL as well as FITE TV. I've provided written, audio, and video content covering some of the biggest MMA promotions like Rumble in the Cage, Unified MMA, and King of the Cage. I've worked as a sports entertainment personality for over five years and given play-by-play or featured promotions of KSW, ONE Championship, TKO, and Invicta FC. My work can be found in the USA Today Sports affiliate MMA Torch, Cageside Press, MMA Sucka, and Liberty Multimedia.