WATCH: The chilling power of Aung La N Sang’s right hand

ONE Championship icon Aung La N Sang will return to the Circle on January 13 when the promotion heads to Impact Arena in Bangkok.

‘The Burmese Python’ is fresh off a first-round knockout of Japanese MMA legend Yushin ‘Thunder’ Okami at ONE 163.

Aung La only needed 1:42 to put away Okami, once again showing the world why he is one of the most dangerous men on the planet.

Ahead of his highly anticipated return to the Circle, ONE Championship highlighted Aung La’s immense power in a video clip on Instagram:

“FULL POWER 😤 The former two-division ONE World Champion returns to action against Gilberto Galvao at ONE Fight Night 6 on January 13! 👊”

Standing in Aung La N Sang’s way of a second-straight win will be the return of Gilberto Galvao. Galvao is 2-2 in four fights, alternating wins and losses. His last appearance came in June 2019 against the fresh-faced Reinier de Ridder, who was then making his sophomore appearance for the promotion.

Eager to get back into the middleweight title picture, both men could certainly inch closer to an opportunity to challenge De Ridder for the belt if they pull off an impressive win next week.

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Aung La N Sang is preparing himself for a potential third meeting with Reinier de Ridder

Once a two-division world champion, Aung La N Sang was on top of the combat sports world. Then Reinier de Ridder happened. Holder of the middleweight and light heavyweight world titles, ‘The Burmese Python’ relinquished both belts to de Ridder in back-to-back fights between October 2020 and April 2021.

Despite coming up short against ‘The Dutch Knight’ on two separate occasions, Aung La is physically preparing himself for a potential third meeting with the Dutchman.

Eager to get the middleweight strap back around his waist, a few more wins inside the Circle could lead Aung La directly back to the man who took the belts from him in the first place.

In an interview with the South China Morning Post, Aung La N Sang recognized that Reinier de Ridder is a bad matchup for him, but is confident in his ability to learn from the past and adapt for the future.

"I've been working a lot on my weaknesses and it'd be a different fight altogether. Stylistically, he's a bad matchup for me, but I am working on my deficiencies and my weaknesses."