Issue 180

July 2019

Myanmar's Aung La N Sang came to the US planning to learn more about agriculture to help people back home, instead became a double-weight world champion and a hero to millions.

Only a handful of fighters have ever held two world titles consecutively and ONE Championship’s Aung La N Sang takes pride of place amongst this elite group.

N Sang’s victory over Alexandre Machado in February 2018 saw him become ONE Championship’s second-ever double-weight world champion and his middleweight title defense later in the year was enough for him to then be nominated for both Fighter of the Year and International Fighter of the Year in the upcoming 2019 World MMA Awards.

Becoming both the ONE Championship middleweight and light heavyweight champion is a remarkable accomplishment in its own right, but in the case of N Sang, his championship victories are just the tip of the iceberg of his remarkable story.

Born in Myitkyina, Kachin, in Myanmar, N Sang grew up in a developing third-world country where opportunities were few and far between. Much of N Sang’s childhood was spent focusing on his education at Yangon International School where he achieved good enough grades to take his studies abroad to Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan. In the United States, N Sang was focused on studying agriculture and taking knowledge back home that would help him revolutionize the industry in his home country.

Little did he know, but his life would take a very different turn after moving to the US and speaking recently to Fighters Only, N Sang explained how his childhood interest in fighting developed into the career he has today.

“My fighting career started when I came to the US, but I always had a passion for martial arts, ever since I was a little kid,” N Sang said. “When I was a kid I did karate and at Christmas, I would always ask for things like boxing gloves and I would spar with my brother.

“Back home, there was never really any means to do anything serious. It was only when I came to college and started training BJJ at one of the Carlson Gracie gyms where things really started seriously.”

N Sang’s entrance into MMA developed from his love of jiu-jitsu and just two years after entering the US, he made his professional MMA debut in 2005. N Sang fought Emerson Rushing at an event called Total Fight Challenge 3 in Indiana and although he lost the bout via doctor stoppage in the first round, it only fuelled his desire to compete again.

“I worked at a dairy farm, so when I started doing jiu-jitsu people would tell me that I had a very strong grip and that I should fight,” N Sang said. “After my first MMA fight, I was just hooked on it. The adrenaline rush, the preparation, the fight itself, it just felt amazing and I wanted to just get more of it even though I lost. It was still just a hobby to me then and I was doing it for fun.”

For the next four years, N Sang went on to compete exclusively in his home state of Indiana he and built a reputation of being an incredibly dangerous submission artist on the mat. It was around this time that N Sang chose his nickname, “The Burmese Python”, and it served as a constant reminder of roots in Myanmar.

“I chose my nickname to help people understand where I’m from,” N Sang explained. “People don’t know where Myanmar is, even today. In the mid-west where I was fighting at the time, I would tell people that I’m from Myanmar and people would look at me with blank faces. When I said ‘It’s where the Burmese pythons are from,’ people understood. I think people thought it suited me well because I was winning a lot of my fights by submission.”

N Sang built a stellar record on the Indiana regional circuit, though it wasn’t until he faced and held his own against several UFC veterans and future stars that he decided to focus entirely on his fighting career. 

“When I fought and beat a guy who had been in the UFC, Chris Price, I started to think that I needed to take things a lot more seriously,” N Sang said. “I knew that if I pursued it with everything I could make it, but even then I didn’t get the call to a big show. When I took on people like Costas Philippou and Uriah Hall and lost I was in my mid-twenties. I remembering saying to myself then that it was now or never and that I had to give MMA everything I had.”

After deciding to give his MMA career his all, N Sang went on to fight in multiple promotions including Bellator before being given the opportunity of a lifetime to sign for ONE Championship in 2014.

At this point in his life, N Sang had yet to return to Myanmar since moving to the US and it wasn’t until he headlined the ONE: Union of Warriors fight card in 2016 that he went back to homeland 13 years later.

“I didn’t go back to Myanmar at all and there was a good reason for that,” N Sang said. “When I came across to the United States, I wanted to go back there with something. My life took me to MMA though and I knew that if I was going to go back then I needed to be successful.”

“The first time I went back was March 2016,” he continued. “This was the time I realized things were very different. The whole country just gave me this massive sense of approval and I knew everyone was behind me.”

That evening, N Sang defeated Mohamed Ali via submission in the main event in front of a packed-out Thuwanna Indoor Stadium in Yangon. For N Sang, It was both a big step towards challenging for the middleweight title and the start of an incredible rise to fame in his home country.

“Waking up the day after and seeing the newspaper was even more surreal,” N Sang said. “The stadium was packed, and seeing myself on the front of the newspaper, I knew it was big. The only word I have for it is surreal. Prior to that, I’d had over 20 fights in MMA, but nothing compared to this. It was the one defining moment when I realized I had the whole country behind me and that the newspaper I grew up reading was giving me the front page.”

N Sang then went on to win twice more before then challenging the undefeated champion Vitaly Bigdash for the first time at ONE: Quest for Power in January 2017. After being defeated via unanimous decision in Jakarta, N Sang was given another opportunity at the title just four months later. This time though, N Sang had the will of his country behind him and the result was different.

“Winning the title in front of my home fans was the most insane moment of my life; it was like it wasn’t real,” N Sang said. “All the hard work that I’d put in was finally being realized. I have to admit though that I was very scared heading into that fight.

“In the first fight with Bigdash, I got beaten very badly and I had to have 16 stitches,” he continued. “The whole training camp I was training like crazy and I ended up getting injured from overtraining. I just had to heal and recover before the fight. On the night though, I just felt like I couldn’t be beaten. The support of the fans was incredible and they helped me through the hard times in the fight.”

Eight months later, N Sang went on to win his second ONE Championship title in front of his home fans at ONE: Quest for Gold and he cemented himself as one of the country’s biggest-ever celebrities. Such was his stardom, in December 2018 a bronze statue was erected in his honor at Kachin National Manau Park in his hometown of Myitkyina. Despite his ever-increasing public profile, N Sang is adamant that his feet will always remain firmly on the ground.

“I want to make this perfectly clear, I don’t think I’m better than anybody,” N Sang said. “I’m not super athletic or anything like that. I’m just strong, durable and hard-headed. Seeing that statue was so weird. I think it cemented for me that I’ve got a lot more responsibility now. I have to act responsibly and be careful about my actions. I don’t have to change anything about who I am, but I have to make sure that what people see of me day-to-day and on things like social media are the right things. As I said, I’m just a normal human being. Having a statue built of myself was crazy.”

With two world titles to his name, N Sang now believes it’s his duty to inspire the younger generations and continue to lead by example. Having come from such humble beginnings himself, he wants the people of his homeland to know that they can also achieve great things in life.

“Myanmar is a third-world country and I want all the kids growing up there to know that they can do big things,” N Sang said. “I used to live in a village when I was a kid and I was scared of my preschool teacher because she dyed her hair red. I didn’t speak any English and I was scared of other people who weren’t the same as me. Coming from there, it’s just a testament that if you work hard and follow your passion, you can achieve a high level of success.

“I want to start giving back to my homeland now and right now I’m currently writing a letter to the sports minister in Myanmar because I want to build a gym,” he continued. “The land prices over there are super expensive, so I’m writing a letter to see if we have some government land where we can build the gym. I want to finish my career strong and then move on to teaching back in Myanmar.”

Whilst N Sang has pledged to do all he can for his people back in Myanmar, the double-weight world champion has a busy year ahead of him. After defeating Ken Hasegawa at ONE: A New Era in Tokyo in March, N Sang was challenged by the current ONE heavyweight world champion Brand Vera for a showdown in the Japanese capital later this year.

Facing a man the size of Vera presents a formidable challenge, but N Sang knows that a victory over the UFC veteran will make big headlines worldwide. Getting his hand raised and retaining his ONE light heavyweight against a legend such as Vera would be a remarkable achievement and yet another feather in the cap of the man who has the entire nation of Myanmar beside him.

“If you told me ten years ago that I would be fighting Brandon Vera, I would’ve told you that you were crazy,” N Sang said. “This fight is going to be the changing of the guard and the changing of the champions. I see myself coming away with the win, but I know Brandon will pose a lot of problems for me because of the size advantage, his experience, his skills, and his power.

“He’s an immense competitor, but he’s nothing that I haven’t faced before,” he continued. “It’s going to be an exciting matchup for the fans and I’m going to show the world who I really am.

I don’t think I’ve really shown the western media what I can, but this fight is the one where I think everyone will stand up and take notice. This fight is for me, my family, and the people of Myanmar. I’ll show the world that we can all be great.”