Aung La N Sang expresses interest in ONE Championship’s first show in the U.S.

Aung La N Sang hopes to be part of ONE Championship’s long-awaited debut in the United States in 2023. Fresh off his first-round knockout of Japanese icon Yushin ‘Thunder’ Okami at ONE 163, Aung La, who trains out of Kill Cliff FC in Florida, looks to continue his resurgence in 2023.

If things go according to plan, he’ll do it in front of a raucous crowd at the 1stBank Center in Colorado. That’s where ONE Championship will hold their first-ever stateside event, headlined by a highly-anticipated trilogy bout between ONE flyweight world champion Demetrious Johnson and former titleholder Adriano Moraes.

In an interview with ONE Championship, ‘The Burmese Python’ had a short but fairly straightforward answer when asked if he wanted to be part of the May 5 card in America.

“Put me in, coach. I want in on that show.”

After dropping three of his last four bouts that included back-to-back losses against former two-division world champion Reinier de Ridder, Aung La N Sang bounced back in a big way in November, putting away fellow Asian MMA legend in Okami. As for who’s next, ‘The Burmese Python’ is not one to demand a specific name, but he hopes his next walk to the circle will be in front of a live North American crowd.

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Aung La N Sang focusing on grappling as he works to climb back to the top

Aung La N Sang is going all in on grappling in an attempt to make the long climb back to the top of the ONE Championship mountain. His win over Yushin Okami in November was certainly a step in the right direction, and with hopes of becoming a ONE world champion again, he will need to continue to evolve. ‘The Burmese Python’ said he was doing exactly that in an interview with the South China Morning Post:

"I have really high-level grapplers at my disposal that I can work with. So it's not a matter of, ‘Can I do it?,’ it's a matter of when. It's going to take time, I'm probably going to have to beat a few more guys. So it is what it is. I'm willing to climb back to the top."

Aung La continued, saying:

“Rogan Gracie. Rogan is one of them. Eric Coyne as well. More of the jiu-jitsu-heavy guys. Herbert Burns. These are the guys that I work with, a lot of the grapplers.”