By:  | May 6, 2023 8:37 am

Fan Rong held his own for the first five minutes at ONE Fight Night 10. The Chinese fighter appeared to be getting the better of the striking exchanges and looked in no rush to take Aung La Nsang down.

Rong definitely wasn’t having things all his own way. The blood trickling from his face was testament to the fact that La Nsang had landed some strikes of his own.

But Rong had gone toe to toe with the former middleweight and light heavyweight champion for five minutes and looked comfortable. That all changed in the second round when the Chinese fighter decided it was time for a take down.

He shot for a double leg and got both hands locked around La Nsang’s waist. But he only succeeded in putting ‘The Burmese Python’ in his comfort zone and the results were immediate.

Guillotine choke

La Nsang locked his left arm around Rong’s neck and squeezed on the guillotine choke. Rong was still working for the takedown but within seconds he was forced to tap.

It was a third straight stoppage win for La Nsang with the finish coming at the 0:48 mark. All of those victories have come inside the distance and, despite his protestations to the contrary, the 37 year old has emerged as the number one contender in the division.

The only problem for La Nsang is that he has lost twice to the reigning ONE Championship middleweight king Reinier de Ridder and neither match was particularly close. The two men subsequently trained together and there is not much enthusiasm about the possibility of a trilogy fight.

Good form

But La Nsang is on very good form and remains one of the most popular fighters on the roster with a big fan following in Myanmar. He has lived in the US for several decades and the support from the crowd at the 1stBank Centre in Broomfield was audible.

With the win La Nsang improves to 31-13-0-1. Rong drops to 19-4 but now has three defeats from five ONE Championship fights having been stopped in his last two.

It was also a lucrative night for La Nsang who was handed a $50,000 USD bonus for his performance. Afterwards he told the fans in Denver that,

I’m an immigrant from Myanmar. The American dream is still alive and well. God bless America, pray for Myanmar.