One Championship’s Aung La N Sang counting blessings – and kicking avocado trees – amid coronavirus uncertainty

‘The Burmese Python’ is in limbo with middleweight title defence vs Vitaly Bigdash up in the air

But Aung La finds self-quarantine positives with more family time – and some bizarre backyard training sessions

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Aung La N Sang poses with his son. The One Championship middleweight champion’s defence against Vitaly Bigdash is in limbo amid the coronavirus pandemic. Photo: Instagram

Published: 1:00pm, 1 Apr 2020Updated: 1:00pm, 1 Apr 2020

Aung La N Sang was supposed to fly out to Singapore this week, ahead of a hastily-rearranged middleweight title defence against Vitaly Bigdash.

Amid the escalating global Covid-19 outbreak, One Championship’s “Infinity 1” card had already been moved from Jakarta, Indonesia, to the Asian MMA organisation’s home city, for what was going to be a behind-closed-doors event on April 10.

But then more upheaval struck, with the Singapore government placing a travel ban on all foreign visitors, which left the Florida-based Aung La stuck after an intense six-week training keep at Sanford MMA in Fort Lauderdale.

“Physically and mentally, I can still fight him on the 10th [of April]. My weight’s good,” he said. “I was over 105kg, something like that. Now I’m on weight for middleweight, so I’m good to go. But because of this, it’s going to be moved back to May 29.

Aung La N Sang celebrates stopping Brandon Vera at One: Century in Tokyo. Photo: One Championship

“Supposedly in Manila, but we don’t know what’s gonna happen with the virus. I don’t know if we’re gonna be allowed to do that. Nothing’s confirmed. Just on the books they have a date set – May 29, Infinity 1. I’m supposed to be on that. I don’t know anything about the details right now, though.