Aung La N Sang says ONE Championship job cuts ‘hurt my heart’ but sees brighter future
- ‘It’s very sad, super sad,’ admits ONE middleweight and light heavyweight champion after coronavirus-enforced lay-offs
- ‘The Burmese Python’ insists ‘we’ll get over it’ and says ‘when they expand again they’re gonna fill those roles’
It’s been a heartbreaking week for many employees at ONE Championship, with the promotion announcing it had laid off 20 per cent of its global workforce because of the coronavirus.
ONE, which also announced it had raised US$70 million from investors to safeguard its future, has not held an event since February’s King of the Jungle in Singapore, which was behind closed doors, with its home city still on lockdown because of the pandemic.
The Asian martial arts company returns this weekend with a double header of its developmental Hero Series in Beijing, China, but it is still unclear when they will be able to hold a main roster card.
“Oh, for sure, it hurts my heart right now to think about the people that were let go,” N Sang, ONE’s middleweight and light heavyweight champ, told SCMP MMA’s Post Fight Podcast. “And they’re pretty much trimming down so they can get through this time. It’s a shame, but that’s the nature of a lockdown, that’s the nature of this pandemic.
“You have nobody working. How are you supposed to make any money? It’s gonna hit the small businesses really hard. It hit us hard, but we’ll get over it.
“ONE Championship is making the cuts, but they also got big financial backing as well, so this just means they’re trimming down for the right time to expand big again, and I hope it’s sooner rather than later.
UFC: Usman, Burns training ‘a little awkward’ admits N Sang
“When they expand again they’re gonna fill those roles again. Right now it’s not possible, it doesn’t make sense. We had zero events in the last three or four months. So it’s bound to happen. It is very sad, super sad.”
While not being able to fight has provided a silver lining in getting to watch his newborn daughter grow up (“she’s the pandemic baby,” he says, laughing) N Sang admitted he misses competing.
“I was just thinking, ‘man, how much I miss a fight week, an event week’,” said N Sang, who last fought in October with a TKO of heavyweight champ Brandon Vera in Tokyo to defend his light heavyweight title. “I miss the whole process of getting my mind ready, the process of walking out and competing for the fans. I miss that feeling a lot. Hopefully sooner rather than later we open everything back up.”
N Sang has been putting his time off to good use, too. When SCMP MMA called, the 35-year-old was on the sofa with teammate and fellow Burmese Tial Thang (who lives at N Sang’s house when he’s in camp) watching some Josh Emmett and Shane Burgos fights, ahead of their bout at UFC Fight Night this weekend.
“I love studying the game, things I need to work on, and just new things that other people can pull off during the high level competition,” N Sang said. “Yeah, watching the lighter weight classes, because I think they’re more technical and a little bit more exciting.
“Or even just watching the body language and the actions during the hard matches, how they react when things are going good and when things are going bad, the mental side as well, studying everything.”
N Sang said training has “never been better” – a scary prospect, given his accolades – and he’s been getting ready as if he were to “compete next week”. He’s still keen on his previously scheduled trilogy bout with Vitaly Bigdash, with each taking a unanimous decision in their first two encounters.
“It’s gonna be good, I feel like I’ve improved a lot in my skill sets,” he said. “I’m staying very ready. I’m scared because of my first two matches with him, but I believe I’ve improved and I wanna stay sharp and get ready. People that are most prepared are the most successful. I wanna put myself in that position.
“There are so many skill sets that I need to improve. That’s why I watch a lot of different competitions, because I can learn where I need to improve. Just these last few weeks, training hard with Anthony ‘Rumble’ [Johnson], Tyrone Spong … man, you guys are in for something better in the next few fights, for sure.”
