Aung La N Sang makes MMA history

01 July 2017
Aung La N Sang makes MMA history
Aung La N Sang (L), also known as Burmese Python from Myanmar during the middleweight Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) ONE Championship bout at the Thuwanna indoor stadium in Yangon on 30 June 2017. Photo: Thet Ko for Mizzima

With a full training camp behind him, and the roar of a raucous hometown crowd cheering on his every move, the “Burmese Python” finally accomplished what he set out to do, defeating Vitaly Bigdash to become the new ONE Middleweight World Champion, according to the organizers One Championship.
The two warriors rocked Yangon in the main event of ONE: LIGHT OF A NATION, which took place on 30 June. 
Bigdash, visiting hostile territory to defend a title he has held since a come-from-behind victory over Igor Svirid in 2015, fell to the wayside on all three judges’ scorecards, as Aung La N Sang bagged a five-round unanimous decision to take home the belt, according to the championship organizers.
With tears streaming from his eyes, Aung La N Sang stood at the center of the ONE Championship cage, basking in the adulation poured upon him from a partisan Yangon crowd chanting his name. The newly minted middleweight titleholder, with the coveted belt draped over his shoulder, shouted a wondrous rhetoric into the microphone before making a promise: “Myanmar, how does it sound to have a world champion?”
“I cannot do this without God. I cannot do this without my teammates. I cannot do this without you, Myanmar,” said Aung La N Sang. “I’m not talented. I’m not fast. But with you, I have courage, I have strength, and now I’ve won the World Title!”