The records books reflect that Vitaly Bigdash and Aung La Nsang share one win apiece from their two encounters. But both went the distance and the Russian believes that he should have been awarded the decision on each occasion.
The two face off for the third time at ONE: ‘Full Circle’ and Bigdash is very confident because he thinks he already beat La Nsang twice,
“I know my opponent very well. We met twice in the past, and I think I won both fights, the first fight quite confidently.”
Unpredictable business
This time around Bigdash doesn’t want to leave it in the hands of the judges. He can only see the fight ending one way,
“I don’t know exactly how this fight will go. Fighting is an unpredictable business, but in my head I want it to end up like this: He’s lying defeated on the canvas, and I’m standing over him.”
La Nsang is not an unknown quantity. Bigdash has already shared the cage with him for 50 minutes and has hours of additional footage to review.
But it sounds like the Russian has spotted some holes in his opponent’s game that he believes can be exploited,
“All fighters have their weaknesses. I’m not going to tell you what holes in his game I’ve noticed. I will try and work according to my game plan so I can fight in a manner that is comfortable for me, in a manner that will allow me to finish him in a spectacular fashion.”
Mental strength
The first time they fought La Nsang accepted the fight at very short notice and managed to fight the full five rounds despite having had no sort of training camp.
But despite this the Russian believes he is mentally stronger,
“I know him better now, and I’ve been training especially for him. But he also knows me well by now. There we are even. However, I have a clear advantage. My strong character and mental strength.”
There is a new middleweight sheriff in town. Reinier de Ridder is undefeated and already holds two wins over La Nang.
Moving up
Bigdash would love challenge the Dutchman and hinted he would be willing to move up to light heavyweight in order to do it,
“It will be a dream to try my luck against Reiner de Ridder (because) he is undefeated and a current ONE light heavyweight and middleweight world champion. I walk around at about 98kgs which falls in between these two weight categories so I either have to drop 8kgs or go up a couple of kilos. Going up is always easier. I’d like to try fighting in a higher weight class in the future.”
Bigdash knows he has to prevail in Friday’s trilogy match before any of this can be possible. But he knows exactly what he wants to achieve and it is winning not one title but two,
“First I must win against Aung La Nsang, then I can focus on De Ridder and other belts. Becoming a champion in two weight classes, that’s my life goal now, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s move up a notch and if I’m meant to win it, then that’s the way it’s going to be.”
