By KyawZin Lin & Chris
In the main event of ONE: QUEST FOR GOLD, hometown hero “The Burmese Python” Aung La N Sang scored a quick knockout victory over Alexandre Machado to win the vacant ONE Light Heavyweight World Championship at the Thuwunna Indoor Stadium in Yangon yesterday night.
Aung La N Sang needed less than a minute to finish Alexandre Machado to become a two-division champion at ONE: Quest For Gold last night. With his remarkable conquest of Machado, Aung La N Sang now has both the ONE Middleweight World Championship and
ONE Light Heavyweight World Championship titles in his possession.
Machado looked significantly bigger but Aung La was much more confident in the early exchanges. He landed a hard body kick which the Brazilian attempted to block with his arms and, seconds later, the Burmese fighter launched a head kick.
Once again, Machado tried to use his hand to block, but the force of the kick was too great and it knocked him down. Aung La moved in for the kill, but the referee could see that his opponent had not recovered and he stepped in to stop the fight before the middleweight champion could land any follow-up strikes.
The finish came at the 0:56 mark and earned Aung La N Sang the light heavyweight belt, which had been vacated by Roger Gracie. His record moves to 22-10-0-1 and he now holds titles in two divisions, while Machado drops to 8-3.
Aung La’s swift victory was received with mix emotions by the audience. Myanmar applauded Aung La for bringing yet another win for the country but many felt that the fight ended so fast that it defeated the momentum building up to the match, leaving a sense of longing in his fans.
In another event, Phoe Thaw remains unbeaten in the ONE cage, and elevates his perfect record to 6-0.
The undefeated 33-year-old lethwei specialist Phoe Thaw also knocked out Cambodia’s Sor Sey with a powerful right push kick to the chin at ONE: QUEST FOR GOLD.
