Aung La N Sang reiterates that he is still after recovering the middleweight world title

Aung La N Sang reiterated that he’s still in the MMA business for one objective only: to recover the ONE middleweight world title.

Going into his third middleweight clash in less than 6 months in Denver, Colorado, Aung La is not joking about getting right back into world title contention to face former adversary Reinier de Ridder for middleweight gold.

He re-affirmed that notion with SCMP MMA:

“Of course, of course. Why else would I stick around if I don’t have plans to get my belt back?”

Watch the interview below:

Since middleweight kingpin ‘The Dutch Knight’ Reinier de Ridder suffered his first loss of his MMA career to Russian powerhouse Anatoly Malykhin, top contenders in the middleweight division are in a frenzy to get their hands on the 205 lbs belt.

Aung La, for his part, wasn’t surprised by the outcome. After all, the dominant grappler was manhandled by a stronger and more well-rounded fighter - qualities that Aung La has in his arsenal to beat his former rival in a potential third match.

Perhaps just one fight away from getting a shot at the world title, ‘The Burmese Python’ is therefore excited to put De Ridder on notice with his third straight victory on May 5.

Watch Aung La N Sang vs. Fan Rong at ONE Fight Night 10 on Prime Video, which will be broadcast live and for free for North American fans with an Amazon Prime subscription.

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Aung La N Sang predicts Arjan Bhullar will have a hard time with Anatoly Malykhin’s speed

Former two-division world champion Aung La N Sang shared his prediction on the highly-anticipated heavyweight world title unification showdown between Arjan Bhullar and Anatoly Malykhin next week.

After many months of waiting, current heavyweight kingpin Arjan Bhullar finally returns to the circle after nearly two years to defend his belt for the first time. As such, Aung La believes the Indian-Canadian slugger is in for a rude awakening when he faces a faster and more skilled boxer in Anatoly Malyhin.

Sharing his thoughts on the subject, here’s what Aung La N Sang had to say:

"Yeah, I think Arjan’s gonna have a hard time because Malykhin’s a little bit faster, a little bit heavier-handed. You don’t see Arjan put people out like Malykhin does and from what I’ve seen, Malykhin is looking fast."

Indeed, Anatoly Malykhin is currently at his most dangerous. Arguably at the pinnacle of his MMA career with 12 wins overall and 8 knockouts, the prolific finisher has leveled up his game immensely since preparing for his world title showdown against Reinier de Ridder last January.

With De Ridder bringing out the best in him, Malykhin is by far one of the most dangerous heavy-hitters in the division to contend against.