ONE: 'Light of a Nation' preview

ONE: "Light of a Nation" takes place at the Thuwunna Indoor Stadium on Friday (June 30, 2017) and features a middleweight title fight with local favorite Aung La Nsang challenging champion Vitaly Bigdash for the second time.

With several little known local fighters in action there are only three fights which will be of interest to the international audience. Her is my preview of them:

155lbs.: Bruno Pucci vs Jimmy Yabo

This fight is interesting because it pits a fighter who got brutally knocked out in his last bout against a fighter who has scored brutal knockouts in the ONE Championship cage. Bruno Pucci (4-2) is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) black belt and no gi grappling world champion but he's been stopped with strikes in the opening round twice.

Jimmy Yabo (5-4-0-1) has a black belt in Taekwondo and scored a one punch KO over Bashir Ahmed last year. If he can keep it standing the Pakistani has a good chance of stopping Pucci but he isn't great on the ground, and the Brazilian probably only needs one takedown to finish the fight.

115lbs.: Mei Yamaguchi vs Jenny Huang

Two of Angela Lee's victims go head to head though it's fair to say that Mei Yamaguchi (15-10-1) fared a lot better against the atomweight champion than Jenny Huang (5-1) did. The Japanese fighter is far more experienced and, aside from their shared opponent, has been in with much better opposition.

Huang's main strength is her submission game but Yamaguchi is also very good on the ground. The Japanese fighter has never been stopped and looks odds on to grind out a decision win here.

205lbs.: Aung La Nsang vs Vitaly Bigdash

For Aung La Nsang (19-10-0-1) this is a date with destiny. The opportunity to challenge for a title in the town you grew up in is the sort of thing most fighters dream of and for the Burmese middleweight that moment has finally arrived.

What was noticeable about the first fight was that la Nsang, who took the bout at 10 days notice, looked well out of shape but held his own in the opening rounds. Vitaly Bigdash (9-0) came on much stronger towards the end of the fight but that could have simply been a conditioning issue.

Neither man seemed eager to take the fight to the ground. Bigdash looked very dangerous with his head kicks while La Nsang tried to walk him down and attack with elbows and punches. They spent a lot of time clinching against the cage with the Russian seemingly stronger, although again that could have come down to conditioning.

I suspect Bigdash's game plan in that fight was to take it easy in the earlier rounds and wait for La Nsang to tire. That's exactly what happened but with both men coming off a full training camp ahead of the rematch he might try and make a faster start this time around.

I expect a stand up war with lots of action. La Nsang will be motivated and determined, he went 25 minutes with Bigdash without any real preparation and should be a much more potent threat on Friday.

The ONE: "Light of a Nation" card can be purchased for $9.99 USD from here.

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