Aung La N Sang Predicts ‘Very Violent’ Battle with Vitaly Bigdash

Aung La N Sang’s first two fights with Vitaly Bigdash went to the judges, but he is determined that the rubber match will be more definitive.

Former One Championship two-division titleholder N Sang (27-12, 1 NC; 12-3 One) is coming off an emphatic first-round knockout of Leandro Ataides that snapped a two-bout skid. “The Burmese Python” is now scheduled to face Vitaly Bigdash for the third time in the co-main event of the fittingly named One “Full Circle.” The pair first collided in January 2017, when Bigdash took a unanimous decision. N Sang paid the Russian back with a decision victory that June. Now, he wants to end their trilogy with a statement.

“Very violent,” the Sanford MMA standout answered when asked how he saw it going down this time. “It’s gonna end, it’s gonna end within three rounds.”

N Sang lost his light heavyweight and middleweight titles in back-to-back defeats at the hands of Reinier de Ridder, who defends the middleweight title against Kiamrian Abbasov in Friday’s main event. He believes that an impressive performance might earn him another shot at the championship. If that ends up not being the case, he is open to facing whomever the promotion puts in front of him.

“It would be an honor for me to be able to [fight the winner of de Ridder-Abbasov],” he said. “If they can’t, if whoever wins can’t fight, I want to fight again early in summer. I want to stay active. As a fighter, we don’t have that long of a career. I have 41 fights now, I want to hit the mark of 50 fights or something like that. I want to keep fighting and keep growing as a mixed martial artist, and I want to take on the best guys.”

During the interview, the 36-year-old also discussed his weight issues ahead of his clash with Ataides, talked about his nightmarish flight to Singapore, and more.

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro
(00:33) His flight to Singapore
(01:47) What he is doing while waiting for his fight
(02:09) His victory over Ataides
(03:02) Getting emotional after the win
(03:49) Aiming for a finish after back-to-back defeats
(04:18) Missing weight for the Ataides fight
(06:30) His thoughts on Bigdash’s changes since facing him in 2017
(08:03) Predicting a violent fight
(08:35) Campaigning for a title shot in case of victory
(09:42) Picking Reinier de Ridder vs. Kiamrian Abbasov
(10:25) Outro

Tudor Leonte started writing about mixed martial arts in 2013 for Italian media outlets. His journey with Sherdog began in 2018 and he now covers One Championship and countless European shows. You can follow him on Twitter @MrTudorLeonte.