ONE Championship’s ‘Burmese Python’ Aung La N Sang speaks up to shine a light on Myanmar ‘tragedy’
- ‘At first I didn’t wanna talk about it,’ says N Sang, but now Myanmar’s most famous fighter hopes to raise awareness in fight on prime time US TV
- ‘This fight is for my fans back home … I’m thinking of them and doing my part to let the world know their suffering’
When the military seized control of Myanmar in February 1’s coup, the country’s most famous athlete did not know what to do.
“The Burmese Python” Aung La N Sang (26-11, one no contest) has amassed nearly three million Facebook followers back home. He even had his own bronze statue unveiled in 2018 at the Kachin National Manau Park in his hometown of Myitkyina, after shooting to superstardom by winning the middleweight and light heavyweight titles in Asian martial arts organisation ONE Championship.
Every post he makes on social media is retweeted, shared and liked hundreds of thousands of times by his adoring fans, who follow his every move – it’s not an understatement to say the country comes to a standstill when N Sang steps into the MMA cage.
But the 35-year-old’s initial silence in the aftermath of the junta taking power and removing the democratically elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi bought scorn, dismay and fury from some of his legion of online supporters.
“At first I didn’t wanna talk about it,” N Sang tells SCMP MMA.
“Yeah, there’s no way … because after my fight next month, I was gonna go home and we were gonna have a grand opening for my gym, to produce future mixed martial arts champions for Myanmar. But that’s not gonna happen any time soon, because by me talking about it, that plan of me going back next month is not gonna happen. I can’t go back home to Myanmar right now, I’m not gonna get a visa.”