"It doesn't really change how I train" - Aung La N Sang says opponents won't change his style

Former ONE two-division world champion Aung La N Sang is sticking to what he knows best, despite enduring the toughest stretch of his MMA career so far.

After dropping three of his last five bouts inside the circle, ‘The Burmese Python’ has heard murmurs about possibly switching things up to get out of the rut that he’s currently in.

Those changes, of course, have to begin behind closed doors in training. But Aung La prefers to keep things just the way they are.

Speaking to ONE Championship, the Burmese-American fighter, who trains out of Kill Cliff in Florida, USA, said there’s no need to sound the panic alarm just yet.

As far as the 37-year-old is concerned, he doesn’t see the need to change the way he approaches fights.

Aung La shared:

“It doesn't make a big difference. I know what my skill sets are, I know what I'm strong at and I know what I'm good at. And at the gym, we have a lot of you know, people that will give me different looks. So I'll camp around what [my opponent's] strengths and weaknesses are. But that doesn't really change how I train. I'm down to compete against anybody in the world.”

Aung La, who previously lorded over ONE’s 205lbs and 225lbs divisions at the same time, has hit a rough patch since losing both world titles to Reinier de Ridder.

The pride of Myanmar bounced back nicely by knocking out Leandro Ataides last year, but faced another setback in his trilogy match against rival Vitaly Bigdash at ONE: Full Circle in his last match.

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Aung La N Sang talks about the difficulties of being a two-division champion

Aung La carved himself into the pantheon of MMA’s all-time greats when he simultaneously captured the ONE middleweight and light heavyweight crowns.

At the time, he was only the second multi-division world champion in the promotion’s history. The first was his long-time teammate Martin ‘The Situ-Asian’ Nguyen who conquered the featherweight and lightweight divisions.

‘The Burmese Python’ was even the longest-tenured double world champion since his simultaneous reign lasted for 980 days.

However, we’ve all heard the saying that heavy is the head that holds the crown. The pressure is amplified when you have two gold straps to protect.

In a recent interview with ONE, Sang talked about the struggles of being and staying on top as champ-champ.

He shared:

“It's a lot harder than it looks. Winning it is one thing and then defending it is another thing. Defending in two different weight classes is a little harder.”