ONE Championship: Aung La N Sang and Vitaly Bigdash plot decisive end to ‘legendary trilogy’
- ‘This fight’s going to end with a bang,’ N Sang predicts ahead of tie-breaking fight with Bigdash at ONE: Full Circle this Friday in Singapore
- Bigdash calls trilogy with fellow former middleweight champion ‘very meaningful’, and says ‘I’m ready for a finish’ after sharing cage for 10 rounds
Aung La N Sang and Vitaly Bigdash are both planning to put their rivalry to bed at ONE Championship’s Full Circle event on Friday in Singapore.
“This fight’s going to end with a bang,” N Sang said in a pre-fight virtual interview alongside the Russian. “If we both do our jobs, we’re going to put on an epic fight.”
“This fight is very meaningful for me,” Bigdash said, echoing his great rival’s sentiments. “I’m ready for any result. I’m ready for a finish.”
This will be the third time “The Burmese Python” (27-12) and 37-year-old Bigdash (11-2) have met in the ONE Circle.
Bigdash won their first encounter, at ONE: Quest for Power in Jakarta in early 2017, defending the promotion’s middleweight title with a unanimous decision. N Sang evened the score in the sequel later that year, winning a decision in front of his fellow Burmese inside the Thuwunna Stadium in Yangon.
The first two fights are regarded among the best in ONE Championship history. They were also formative experiences for both fighters.
According to N Sang, who is now 36, it was actually his loss to Bigdash that convinced him to relocate to South Florida in search of higher quality MMA training.
“[Bigdash] made me who I am today,” said N Sang, who now trains out of Sanford MMA.
“The last five years have been dedicated to becoming a better mixed martial artist. He’s the reason I moved down to Florida to have a more professional environment.”
Bigdash was sidelined by injuries from 2018 to 2021, but made a triumphant return to action last December when he submitted China’s Fan Rong with a third-round guillotine choke. He claims he was honing his skills throughout his hiatus, and plans to show more of his improvements in what he calls a “legendary trilogy” this Friday.
“All this time I was active,” he said. “Maybe not [in fights], but in my training there was no break for me. I was always working hard.”
“I worked on all aspects,” Bigdash added. “I was working on my striking, my wrestling, my grappling as well.”
With years of hard training behind them, N Sang and Bigdash agree Friday’s fight could look very different from their first two.
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“I didn’t know how to fight much back then,” N Sang said. “They were epic [fights], but we’re totally different fighters, both of us. In the last five years we’ve grown as martial artists. We’ve grown as human beings. I believe this Friday night’s fight is going to be a totally different fight, and it’s going to be fun.”
No matter the outcome, it is safe to assume N Sang and Bigdash will shake hands when it’s over.
“I have nothing but respect and love for this guy,” N Sang said.
“He’s a good guy,” Bigdash added. “He’s a sportsman. He’s a family guy. Big respect to him.”
Friday’s ONE: Full Circle card will be headlined by a middleweight title fight between champion Reinier de Ridder, who is riding back-to-back victories over N Sang, and challenger Kiamrian Abbasov, who holds the title at welterweight.
It will also feature a light heavyweight kick-boxing title fight between Roman Kryklia and Murat Aygun.
