The Open-Weight Super-Bout at ONE: HERO’S DREAM in Yangon, Myanmar, presents ONE Middleweight World Champion Aung La N Sang with a colossal test.

The “Burmese Python” will take on hulking Hong Kong heavyweight knockout artist Alain Ngalani, in a contest that has captured the imagination of martial arts fans around the world, as Myanmar’s only sporting world champion takes on a giant inside the ONE Championship cage.

Between Aung La N Sang and potential victory is a punishing training schedule that has been specially adapted for the mountainous task awaiting him on 3 November.

He kicks off his day with an early start and an adapted strength and conditioning session at AXIS Sports Performance, as he looks to add more muscle to his frame to help reduce the strength disparity between the pair without losing any of his speed advantage.

He then switches venues to Crazy 88 Mixed Martial Arts in Elkridge, Maryland, where he works his hands with a new boxing coach.

“I brought in a boxing coach so he could come in and work with me,” he explained. “I had to do it so I can train more and have harder training sessions. That way, I get more out of it.”

That session takes him up to midday, where he switches gears and hits the mats for a 90-minute Brazilian jiu-jitsu session, followed by an hour of wrestling.

If there’s time, he heads to Crazy 88 at Owings Mills to teach afternoon classes, but by the time evening arrives, he’s back at the main branch of the gym to work on his Muay Thai skills.

As if all that was not enough, his Tuesdays and Fridays also see him drive over to Lloyd Irvin Mixed Martial Arts in Camp Springs, Maryland, for some heavyweight sparring.

Despite the tweaks to Aung La N Sang’s training, his coach Julius Park says the philosophy behind it stays the same.

“The camp has not changed that much in terms of skill refinement and developing a game plan,” he explained. “He has been working with heavier opponents so he can get used to the weight.

“His strength and conditioning, and his dieting, are the only areas where there has been a drastic change, because he wants to be a little heavier for this bout.

“He eats a lot more, and the timing of his workouts has changed. We switched up some things in his striking and his grappling, but like I said, no real structural changes.”

Aung La N Sang has also moved into a more central location to keep travelling times down to a minimum, and he’s enjoying the benefits.

“I am getting more out of every session, because I do not have to spend hours in the car,” he said. “Instead I put those hours in the gym and I can get my skills better.

“I feel a difference when I spar and when I train, so you are going to see a better version of me.”

His coach Park concurs, saying his charge is looking in fine fettle ahead of the unique test that lays ahead.

“He has made a fairly graceful ascent from a kid who just wanted to compete, to a World Champion in one of the biggest organisations in the world,” he said.  

“He has sort of scaled up everything that needs to be scaled up, and kept everything grounded that needs to be grounded. Plus, he understands himself more as an athlete and a person.

“Now, he is able to be more strategic. He understands the athletic side of things. Although it is primal, there are a lot of tactics and meta game that are also part of it. He is way more in tune with those aspects now.”

The ONE Middleweight World Champion’s team is making all the right noises ahead of the bout. But the proof will come on the night, when the cage door closes and the referee gets the action underway.

Only then will he truly know if the hours of training have paid off.