Aung La N Sang credits Reinier de Ridder for making him a better fighter 

Aung La N Sang dissected through all his rivals inside the ONE Circle for the most part during his promotional tenure. But all that changed when BJJ black belt and current ONE middleweight king Reinier de Ridder joined the roster.

The Breda native earned a shot at ‘The Burmese Python’ after three back-to-back wins, and dismantled the longtime king to claim the middleweight and light heavyweight gold in consecutive fights.

Not one to quit and lose hope, the 37-year-old went back to the drawing board in an attempt to regain his throne. Unfortunately, after knocking out Leandro Ataides in July 2021, he succumbed to yet another loss.

Since that defeat to Vitaly Bigdash in February 2022, though, all has been going well for Aung La N Sang.

Most recently, the American-based superstar shut out Fan Rong inside the sold-out 1stBank Center in Colorado, which played host to ONE Fight Night 10.

The Burmese superstar forced his Chinese rival to tap at the 48-second mark of round two, earning his 28th career finish.

But while he remains eternally grateful to his coaches and teammates at Kill Cliff FC, he also pointed out that Reinier de Ridder has played a pivotal role to shape him into the fighter he is today – especially in his proficiency on the canvas.

Speaking to South China Morning Post, he offered:

“The jiu-jitsu part, I’ve been working a lot on it since my loss against Reinier [de Ridder]. I even told him backstage, you made me a better fighter, so thank you.”

Watch the full interview here:

While there hasn’t been any confirmation on his next fight, the former two-division king would clearly love a shot at the Dutchman’s middleweight crown.

Fans in North America can watch Aung La N Sang’s impressive performance and the entire ONE Fight Night 10 card via replay on Amazon Prime Video.