One Championship: Aung La N Sang promises Myanmar MMA protégé Tial Thang will only get better

‘Dragon Leg’ pushes through pain barrier of broken rib to beat Kim Woon-kyoum in Kuala Lumpur

Thang’s teammates Aung La and Martin Nguyen inspire him to emotional victory at Mark of Greatness

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Martin Nguyen (left) and Aung La N Sang celebrate with Tial Thang. Photos: One Championship

Published: 3:22pm, 7 Dec 2019Updated: 3:27pm, 7 Dec 2019

Walking to the One Championship cage flanked by his “brothers” on Friday night, Tial Thang knew it was all on him now. And “The Dragon Leg” duly delivered in front of his new-found adoring Burmese fan army.

There are 600,000 Burmese living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and a fair few of them were in the Axiata Arena screaming on Thang. “I had to control my emotion because it was before the fight,” Thang told the Post. “It almost brought me to tears.”

It helps when you have Aung La N Sang in your corner. When his face flashed up on the big screens during the fight, he was afforded an even bigger cheer. But that’s to be expected – the One middleweight and light heavyweight champion is a national hero in Myanmar.

“Aw, he’s my son,” Aung La said, jokingly, putting an arm around Thang, when asked if he was like a “proud father”. Their teammate Martin Nguyen, the One featherweight champion who was also cornering Thang in Malaysia, was the “mother”, Aung La added with a laugh. But it’s fair to say Thang might never have made it to professional MMA without Aung La’s guidance.

Thang controlled the bantamweight fight against South Korea’s Kim Woon-kyoum – a dangerous opponent and a One Warrior Series winner – on the feet and on the ground, almost from wire to wire.