For over a decade, Aung La N Sang has been a stalwart at ONE Championship where he previously reigned as a two-division champion while taking on challenge across multiple divisions during his career. But on Friday, \u201cThe Burmese Python\u201d is calling it a career with plans to retire after his fight against Zebeztian Kadestam at ONE Fight Night 36.<\/p>\n
There are a number of reasons why he opted to call it a career now but making that choice rather than having it made for him was definitely a huge part of his decision.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI\u2019m 40 now. You can\u2019t fight forever,\u201d Aung La N Sang told MMA Fighting. \u201cIt\u2019s better for me to spend my time raising the next generation than to keep fighting. You can see we\u2019re building a gym here, too, so this is the next step in my life.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve seen it many times. Tony Ferguson, all these guys. You know the [third] time when Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell are fighting, and they shouldn\u2019t be fighting. You know for a fact that they shouldn\u2019t be fighting. I don\u2019t want to be in that same boat, and while I\u2019m healthy, I want to build something else.\u201d<\/p>\n
As much as he\u2019s going to miss fighting, Aung La N Sang isn\u2019t leaving the sport because he\u2019s actually become a huge part of the coaching staff at Kill Cliff FC, a Florida-based gym that counts fighters like Michael Chandler, Gilbert Burns and Michael Johnson among those on the team.<\/p>\n
One of the fighters he works with most often is current UFC middleweight contender Reinier de Ridder, who is preparing for his own matchup against Brendan Allen in Vancouver on Oct. 18.<\/p>\n
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Between 2020 and 2021, Aung La N Sang actually battled de Ridder in a pair of title fights when was ONE\u2019s middleweight and light heavyweight champion. He ended up dropping both titles to de Ridder and now counts him as a close friend and teammate, who he hopes to help become a champion again only this time in the UFC.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s crazy,\u201d Aung La N Sang said about his relationship with de Ridder. \u201cIt happens all the time. You know this sport is very small and the guys at the top, they tend to run into each other. For me it\u2019s just an honor to be a part of his camp and I know his game very well, obviously spending that many rounds with him. I know how good he is. For me, it\u2019s really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
While de Ridder made his name in ONE Championship, he\u2019s now a perfect 4-0 in the UFC with the potential to fight for a title with another win. Aung La N Sang knew that de Ridder was going to make waves in the UFC even if there was some hesitation to believe he was really that good just because he came from another organization.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou think about MMA and everyone thinks about UFC,\u201d Aung La N Sang said. \u201cBut how is it possible that a guy that\u2019s been doing MMA and championship fights outside the UFC and doing exactly what these guys are doing, wouldn\u2019t be as good as them? Some people are delusional in that sense.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIf a person plays soccer at a very high level, just because they don\u2019t play at Real Madrid or something like that, it doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re good. I know how good Reinier is. I also know where his weaknesses are but I know from an MMA standpoint why he\u2019s so successful and why he\u2019s so good.\u201d<\/p>\n
The focus turns back to de Ridder and his fight after Aung La N Sang gets through his own on Friday, and he\u2019s excited for the next chapter in his life.<\/p>\n
Of course, he\u2019s not oblivious to the common trope involving retirement where MMA fighters notoriously hang up the gloves only to inevitably compete again.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why he\u2019s not totally shutting the door on another fight, but Aung La N Sang is pretty resolved this is his last one.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m 99 percent sure,\u201d Aung La N Sang said with a laugh. \u201cI\u2019m 99 percent sure this is it. Because I\u2019m an MMA fighter.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For over a decade, Aung La N Sang has been a stalwart at ONE Championship where he previously…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":273092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[141552,1582,276,141553,2961,224,5337,141555,97163,141554,552],"class_list":{"0":"post-273091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-aung-la-n-sang","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-de-ridder","12":"tag-la","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-losangeles","15":"tag-michael-chandler","16":"tag-michael-johnson","17":"tag-reinier-de-ridder","18":"tag-ufc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115307194954111635","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}