Photo from ONE
MANILA, Philippines—Brandon Vera has carried the ONE Championship heavyweight for nearly four years but he’s not settling to be promotion’s top martial artist at the heaviest weight class.
The inaugural and reigning World heavyweight titleholder has challenged Aung La N Sang, the middleweight and light heavyweight champion, to become just the promotion’s third double champ.
Vera and N Sang will slug it out for the light heavyweight title in one of the world championships fights lined up for ONE’s 100th event Century in Tokyo on Oct. 13.
The Filipino-American fighter admits that he is wary of the Burmese Python.
“As an athlete, he’s a monster,” said Vera. “He’s a scary man, he just keeps going. He doesn’t go away.”
“He gets better and better every event, he just keeps improving his skill set. He’s tougher than anyone I’ve seen. He has more heart, he’s got a country driving him.”
Vera (16-7) has won all four of his fights in ONE Championship and none of those bouts made it past the first round with his longest one lasting 3:54 during his debut match against Igor Subora in ONE: Warrior’s Wayon Dec. 5, 2014.
N Sang (25-10), however, is one of the greatest names in ONE Championship history, having won 10 of 11 fights and five of those victories never went a full five-minute round.
“Aung La is who motivates me every day to go train when I’m sore, when I’m tired, when I don’t know if I should get up,” said Vera. “He’s the reason why I’m doing this today.”