Despite having a slow start to his professional MMA career, Aung La N Sang eventually achieved superstardom in the MMA world through One Championship. Nicknamed the “Burmese Python”, Aung La N Sang has been regarded a national hero in his native Myanmar ever since his One Championship debut.
Aung La N Sang is the true embodiment of a martial artist. He has received several accolades due to his accomplishments with One Championship, including the 2018 International Fighter of the Year, and he’s the promotion’s current middleweight and light heavyweight champion.
This makes him the second fighter in One Championship to hold titles in two separate weight divisions, the first being Aung La’s teammate Martin Nguyen from Hard Knocks 365.
Let’s take a closer look as we countdown Aung La N Sang’s Top 5 MMA Finishes (in descending order)!
- Vs. Alain “The Panther” Ngalani — One Championship: Hero’s Dream (Nov. 3, 2017)
- Vs. Mohammad Karaki — One Championship: Pursuit of Greatness (Oct. 26, 2018)
- Vs. Brandon “The Truth” Vera — One Championship: Century Part II (Oct. 13, 2019)
- Vs. Alexandre Machado — One Championship: Quest for Gold (Feb. 23, 2018)
- Vs. Ken Hasegawa — One Championship: Spirit of a Warrior (June 29, 2018)
Having finally become a world champion snatching the middleweight title from Vitaly Bigdash, Aung La’s next challenge was an open weight bout against heavyweight Muay Thai champion and Kyokushin Karate black belt Alain Ngalani.
Both men started the first round testing the waters, and Aung La clipped Ngalani twice with a right-hand punch before the fight was taken to the ground.
Ngalani held Aung La next to the fence and was on top in half-guard. Although Ngalani controlled Aung La on the ground, Aung La managed to scramble his way back up and eventually submitted Ngalani with a guillotine choke.
Following the epic bout against Ken Hasegawa, Aung La N Sang had his second middleweight title defense bout against Mohammad Karaki.
Aung La dominated the fight, as he constantly walked Karaki down dropping him twice, with the second knockdown ending the fight within the first round.
After 3 successful middleweight title defenses, Aung La N Sang was scheduled for his first light heavyweight title defense against One Championship’s heavyweight champ and UFC veteran Brandon Vera. The bout took place in One’s biggest event to date, One Century Part 2, and it was the main event.
The first round was more of a feeling-out process, with Aung La winning the majority of the striking exchanges. By the second round, Vera became more aggressive, resulting in a heated round with both men trading heavy blows. Nevertheless, Aung La managed to hurt Vera and later tagged Vera with a spinning back elbow before landing another punch that sent Vera to the canvas.
Aung La followed through with some ground and pound before being stopped by the referee.
After avenging his loss to Vitaly Bigdash to become One’s new middleweight champion, Aung La moved up a weight class to face Brazilian fighter Alexandre Machado for the light heavyweight title, and it didn’t take long.
With the bout taking place in Aung La’s home country of Myanmar, the crowd was most definitely rooting for their hero Aung La N Sang.
With a slow start, Aung La landed two solid roundhouse kicks to the mid-section of Machado, but before the first minute, the Burmese Python threw a head kick that broke through Machado’s guard and knocked him down.
Aung La landed two punches on the downed Brazilian before the referee stepped in.
As a result, Aung La N Sang became a two-division world champion after securing both the middleweight and light heavyweight titles.
Aung La N Sang faced Ken Hasegawa in his first middleweight title defense, and the two duked it out in a five-round bout that is regarded as one of the best fights in One’s history.
The fight was mostly a back-and-forth stand-up affair that was heavily contested, with both fighters exchanging heavy blows.
Even when both sides were out of gas, so to say, with their faces bruised, they still showed a lot of heart as they continued throwing and receiving each other’s best shots.
Ultimately, the Burmese Python bested the Japanese challenger, and with less than two minutes left in the 5th round, Aung La landed an uppercut that caused Hasegawa to fall flat on his face.
