Aung La Nsang is going to try and ‘break’ Yushin Okami when the pair meet at ONE 163 next week. It is a fight that has been in the works for several years with both men looking to resurrect their careers.
La Nsang has been calling for the fight for months but says he won’t be wasting any time once the bell sounds at the Singapore Indoor Stadium,
“I’m going to look to break him. As soon as we touch gloves, I’m going to look to break him. I feel like I have a mission now. As a fighter, nothing is certain until you sign on the dotted lines. For me to get the contract signed and ready to go, it feels like I’m on a mission now,” he said.
🤯 これぞ激闘 🤯
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Biggest names
Okami has been in with some of the biggest names in the sport including Anderson Silva, Chael Sonnen and Rich Franklin. He is famous for having beating ‘The Spider’ but also boasts victories over the likes of Mark Munoz, Nate Marquardt and Hector Lombard.
The Japanese veteran is also coming into this fight on the back of a win over former ONE Championship welterweight title challenger Agilan Thani and La Nsang has a lot of respect for Okami,
“He’s one of the Asian mixed martial artists I looked up to in the last ten years and he’s fought in different high-level organizations, so he’s a great one to test myself with,” he said.
But while La Nsang sounds confident he admits that Okami’s style could give him problems,
“Stylistically, I think he’s problematic for me. He’s longer and he has more range as a grappler, and that’s the kind of fight that I have problems with and so this is stylistically, for him, a good matchup,” he admitted.
やられたら、やり返す！😤😤@AungLANsang @Verafied #WeAreONE #ONEChampionship #格闘技 pic.twitter.com/YbyFO2Ixf2
— ONECHAMPJP (@ONECHAMPJP) December 13, 2021
Major improvements
Anyone who saw La Nsang’s two fights with Reinier de Ridder will know exactly what he is talking about. But the 37 year old believes he has made some major improvements,
“For me I feel like it’s a good matchup too (because) I’ve been working on my weaknesses, and I think this fight is going to be a great fight for me to rebound and be on the right path in my attempt to get my (middleweight) title back,” he said
With three losses in his last four fights La Nsang knows the road back to the title will be a long one. Time is not exactly on his side but at this stage of his career winning the belt is not the sole motivation for the Burmese born fighter.
La Nsang believes he can beat any middleweight in the world on his day and says he is determined to fulfill his potential when he fights,
“To become the best version of myself and knowing that the best version of myself on any given day can beat anybody in the world is what excites me and what motivates me to get better.”
We haven’t seen the best version of La Nsang in recent years. But at ONE 163 he will be looking to roll back the years and showcase the sort of form that once saw him hold titles in two different divisions.
