Tial Thang has made some serious sacrifices in order to focus on his ONE Championship career. The Burmese bantamweight left his family behind to train with Aung La Nsang at Sanford MMA,
“I stay away from my kid and my family so I can be better in this game. I spent 2020 down in South Florida away from my family. I stayed at my brother Aung La’s house, training with him for mixed martial arts, and getting better every day,” he said.
Like La Nsang he was born in Myanmar but is now based in the US. Thang faces Paul Lumihi at ONE: ‘Unbreakable’ Part III which is being broadcast this Friday.
It will be Thang’s first fight since 2019 but he made good use of the time away from active competition,
“Nobody liked the pandemic, but I took advantage of it to get my skill set better so I am very excited to show the world on Friday night all the work that I put in,” he said before the fight.
Impatient approach
Thang’s two ONE Championship fights have both been the distance. He thinks his previous performances have suffered due to a lack of patience,
“When I fight, I tend to rush, pretty much, so we worked on cleaning up those small details, switching stances and being in the position I need to be in when I punch. These things are very important, it seems small but those small details matter in a fight.”
Lumihi has yet to taste victory in his ONE Championship career but was a champion in Indonesia. Thang describes his opponent as ‘tough’,
“We watched a couple of his tapes. I think he is a tough opponent, a tough human being. He is a good striker, so I can’t wait to test my skill set against him.”
Looking for the finish
The Burmese bantamweight feels that training in the US could give him an edge over his opponent,
“He has more experience, but I think, overall, I have better coaches and training partners. And overall, my mixed martial arts game is better, so that’s how I know my hand will be raised on Friday night.”
He has pledged to take a more patient approach to this fight. But Thanh is determined to finish a fight inside the fits center for the first time in his professional career,
”I’m going to go in there, touch gloves and look for the finish from the start to the end. We’re here to fight and my prediction is that, at the end of the night, I will have my hand raised.”
