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Check out these photos from Tang Kai vs. Thanh Le at ONE 166 in Qatar.
Check out these photos from Tang Kai’s title victory over Thanh Le at ONE 166 which took place at Lusail Sports Arena in Lusail, Qatar. (Photos courtesy of ONE Championship)
Thanh Le needed just over a minute to win the interim featherweight title against Ilya Freymanov at ONE Fight Night 15.
[autotag]Thanh Le[/autotag] didn’t need much time to claim a piece of the ONE Championship featherweight title.
In the main event of ONE Fight Night 15 at Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, Le (14-3) faced Ilya Freymanov with the interim featherweight (155 pounds) title on the line. Willing to take the fight anywhere, Le took advantage of an opportunity on the mat and tapped Freymanov (12-3) with a heel hook at 1:02 of Round 1.
The pair exchanged heavy strikes in the opening moments. Freymanov changed levels for a takedown as Le charged forward with hooks. To counter, Le attacked the left leg of Freymanov and after adjusting his position, was able to lock in a heel hook to force a fast tap.
Check out video of the finish below (via X):
OUT OF NOWHERE! 🤯
Thanh Le 🇻🇳🇺🇸 heel hooks Ilya Freymanov in 62 seconds to claim the ONE Interim Featherweight MMA World Title! 👑 #ONEFightNight15 pic.twitter.com/oFxevrNbq0
— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) October 7, 2023
As gold confetti rained down covering the ring, Le dropped down to make a snow angel before talking about his performance on the microphone, when he would admit looking for a submission on the mat was not part of the gameplan coming into the fight, but he was more than willing to take it there.
“Absolutely not, he took me off of my feet,” Le explained. “I hit him, he ain’t like it, he got rocked, put me on my back. Problem is, I’m really f*cking good there. So, sh*t like that happens. Y’all, take me down. Please. Let’s do it.”
Le is now set to for a future rematch against ONE champion Tang Kai, who has been sidelined due to a knee injury. The pair first met at ONE Championship 160 last August, where Tang won a unanimous decision. Tang was brought into the ring to face off with Le, and both men promised to finish the job the next time, leaving the judges out of the final result.
The rematch is ON 😤
Who you got for the undisputed ONE Featherweight MMA World Title?
Watch the ONE Fight Night 15 Replay on Prime Video 👉 https://t.co/LF67g9KCVe pic.twitter.com/Emz5YZVBjw
— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) October 7, 2023
Full results of ONE Fight Night 15 include:
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An immediate title rematch is set for the ONE Championship featherweight division as Tang Kai and Thanh Le will run it back.
[autotag]Tang Kai[/autotag] and [autotag]Thanh Le[/autotag] are running it back.
At ONE Fight Night 12, Kai (15-2) will put his featherweight title on the line for the first time and does so against the man he took it from, Le (13-3). A promotion official Tuesday informed MMA Junkie of the booking.
The card takes place July 14 at a venue and location yet to be announced. No other fights have been announced for the card at this time.
In August, Kai challenged then-champion Le for the title at ONE Championship 160. Kai defeated Le via unanimous decision to earn gold. The first meeting was the first time Kai went past the second round, and the first time Le went past the third round.
The win extended Kai’s streak to 10, which also included wins over Jae Woong Kim and Chang Min Yoong among others. For Le the loss snapped a five-fight winning streak that included a title-earning knockout of Martin Nguyen and a title-defending TKO stoppage of Garry Tonon.
Kai, 27, and Le, 37, have a combined 24 knockout victories in a combined 28 pro MMA wins.
China has its first major MMA male champion.
China has its first major MMA male champion as [autotag]Tang Kai[/autotag] outworked [autotag]Thanh Le[/autotag] over the course of 25 minutes to claim the featherweight title Friday at ONE Championship 160 in Singapore.
The judges scored the fight a unanimous decision for Tang, who joins former UFC strawweight champion Zhang Weili as the only two Chinese fighters to win major MMA titles.
It was the first time both Tang, 26, and Le, 36, went into deep waters. Tang (15-2) hadn’t fought past the second round and Le (13-3) past the third prior to ONE Championship 160.
Leg kicks were Tang Kai's best weapon as he outworked Thanh Le to win a unanimous decision and claim the featherweight title. 🦵#ONE160 pic.twitter.com/Ammqs34o63
— MMA Junkie (@MMAJunkie) August 26, 2022
Tang and Le put on a show, but Tang’s crisp striking proved to be the difference. Tang especially found success with lead leg kicks throughout the fight, which caused visible damage to Le’s thighs and calves. It didn’t matter if Le stood orthodox or southpaw, Tang tenderized both sides.
Even so, Tang was never out of danger as Le was relentless with his attack. Le had his moments, but Tang proved to be elusive in avoiding all of the big punches. He was effective with his counter-striking.
Tang managed to drop Le twice – once with a leg kick and once with a hard counter-punch.
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Featherweight champion Thanh Le previews his title fight against Kai Tang at ONE Championship 160.
In the buildup to ONE Championship 160, challenger [autotag]Kai Tang[/autotag] has done all the trash talking. As for featherweight champion [autotag]Thanh Le[/autotag], you might call him a quiet assassin.
“You tell me what’s a little more scary: the guy that’s calm, quiet, comes out, and kills or the one that runs his mouth a little bit?” Le told MMA Junkie Radio. “I know which one I’m worried about. …
“There is not hate or anger that needs to get me fired up to fight. I could wake up in the morning, go play with my daughter in the yard, somebody comes into the room randomly, and I could literally take them out, assassinate them, do what I need to do. Take care of my family, protect my family, then go right back to play.”
That’s Thanh Le for you in a nutshell.
Le, 36, is set to try and defend his title for a second time when he takes on 26-year-old Tang on Friday at ONE Championship 160 in Singapore.
Le (13-2) won the title in October 2020 when he submitted then-champion Martin Nguyen. His first title defense was this past March, a ground-and-pound TKO finish of grappling specialist Garry Tonon in just 56 seconds.
Le said he takes pride in the fact that he “didn’t find a way” to the title and instead “fought the best guys I could fight” to earn it.
In Tang (14-2), Le faces a much younger striking specialist who’s been on a roll with nine consecutive wins – the past three by knockout. Le acknowledges the danger Tang presents and sees some similarities in how they fight.
“If you zoom out enough, conceptually I think he brings a very similar game to what I do,” Le said. “I think our tools are different, and our approach on some of that is different, but he does a good job staying safe. He does a good job with movement. He moves his feet very well, which isn’t very common in this game honestly. But, yeah, he does standout. He has great, powerful and sharp striking, which is a great combination for him along with his feet. … A huge danger and very different, in some ways better and some ways worse than all the fighters I’ve fought before.”
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Featherweight title challenger Thanh Le chats to MMA Junkie Radio ahead of his title fight with Martin Nguyen at ONE Championship 118 in Singapore.
Featherweight title challenger Thanh Le chats to MMA Junkie Radio ahead of his title fight with Martin Nguyen at ONE Championship 118 in Singapore.
ONE Championship 118 is now official for Oct. 30, and four championship fights headline the card.
ONE Championship 118 is now official for Oct. 30, and four championship fights headline the card.
ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong recently revealed the promotion’s plans, though he declined to name a location for the behind-closed-doors event, which will stream live on B/R Live.
In the night’s main event, two-division champion [autotag]Aung La N Sang[/autotag] (26-10) puts his light heavyweight title on the line against undefeated Dutch challenger [autotag]Reinier de Ridder[/autotag] (12-0).
Additionally, welterweight title holder [autotag]Christian Lee[/autotag] (13-3) puts his belt on the line against undefeated challenger [autotag]Iuri Lapicus[/autotag] (14-0), lightweight champion [autotag]Martin Nguyen[/autotag] (13-3) faces “The Ultimate Fighter 22” cast member [autotag]Thanh Le[/autotag] (11-2), and women’s flyweight champ [autotag]Jing Nan Xiong[/autotag] (14-2) faces [autotag]Tiffany Teo[/autotag] (9-1).
Additional fights are expected to be announced shortly.
“You know, I hate to sound trite but the show must go on, and what I have learned personally is that my team at ONE Championship, the resilience, the passion, the excellence, has far exceeded my expectations,” Sityodtong said on a recent media call promoting the event. “I will tell you that the morale internally in ONE Championship is at all-time high. People are just fired up.
“I always say that in crisis, you really discover who you are as a person, who you are as an individual, and as a team, and one quote that comes to mind, always is, you know, ‘Ships are not made for the calm waters of the harbor, ships are made for the rough seas in search of new horizons,’ and, ‘Great captains are made in rough seas, never in the calm of the harbor.’ That’s why I said, you know, I think, I genuinely believe that the best companies in the world will not only survive, they will thrive in the same way ONE Championship is thriving in this environment. The show must go on.”
ONE Championship hasn’t hosted a title fight since January’s ONE Championship 107 event in the Philippines.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic forced ONE Championship officials to halt live events from March until late July, when the company set up shop for a string of six fight cards in Thailand.
Ahead of the Oct. 30 event, the promotion will host two cards in Singapore, starting with Friday’s “ONE Championship 116: Reign of Dynasties,” which streams on B/R Live.
The lineup for “ONE Championship 118: Inside the Matrix” currently includes:
ONE featherweight champion Martin Nguyen revealed he’s facing Thanh Le next, and said he’s pressing ONE to stage the fight in Vietnam.
Ever since he stunned Marat Gafurov to capture the ONE featherweight title back in 2017, [autotag]Martin Nguyen[/autotag] has always had a target on his back. But, rather than waiting for the challengers to come to him, he’s been pushing for fights with the most dangerous men in the division.
Nguyen (13-3) explained that he had picked out a shortlist of top contenders and given it to ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong to help get him matched up in his next title defense as easily as possible.
One matchup that looked to be on the table was a title clash with grappling ace Garry Tonon, who has gone undefeated since transitioning to MMA with ONE Championship. But Nguyen explained that, despite accepting Tonon’s challenge, that bout didn’t come to fruition.
“Yeah, most definitely (I’d fight Garry),” he told MMA Junkie. “Garry is part of the five people that were on my list to fight. Chatri has that list, but yeah, I said I would fight Garry Tonon. I accepted a bout on my end (but) I don’t know what happened at his end, or if ONE Championship staff didn’t think that he was ready yet. But the stars will align and, when that day comes, yeah, it’s gonna be fireworks, definitely.
“But this next bout is going to be fireworks (too). Hopefully, if everything goes well and this coronavirus passes through, I’ll be versing [autotag]Thanh Le[/autotag].”
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Le’s clinical knockout performances since joining ONE have marked him out as a clear and present danger to “The Situ-Asian’s” featherweight title reign. Le (11-2) is 3-0 in ONE Championship, with all three wins coming by knockout in a combined time of just 4:31.
Nguyen says that explosive finishing potential should mesh well with his own and deliver a spectacular fight for the fans.
“This one’s going to be a cracker of a fight,” he said. “I cant wait to showcase everything that I’ve learned. He’s going to be getting three camps’ worth of Martin Nguyen, so we’ll see what happens.”
Both Nguyen and Le are of Vietnamese heritage, and the Australian said he’s already pitched the possibility of their fight taking place in Vietnam in what would be the first major global title fight to be held in the nation, which only legalized MMA in February.
“I did make a suggestion, and it would make a killer of a sell-out show if there was anyone was allowed to attend the fight,” he explained. “I did say that me and my opponent in Vietnam would be a killer event, since I heard MMA had just been legalized there. So we’ll see what happens, man.”
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Check out all the highlights from yet another thrilling night of ONE Championship action.
ONE Championship’s first live event of 2020 saw the Asian martial arts promotion return to a familiar venue as Bangkok’s Impact Arena played host to “ONE Championship 106: A New Tomorrow” in Thailand.
Per usual, the company delivered their worldwide fan base a thrilling night of action from across the combat sports spectrum. The MMA side featured [autotag]Stamp Fairtex[/autotag]’s first-round knockout victory over Pujar Tomar, and up-and-comer [autotag]Thanh Le[/autotag] scored a big stoppage victory of his own over Ryogo Takahashi.
In case you didn’t stay up all night to watch this event, fear not: The good folks at ONE Championship have provided the highlights of the card, and you can catch out all the best from this action-packed evening in the video linked above.
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American featherweight contender Thanh Le registered his third straight finish as he delivered a statement performance at ONE Championship 106 in Bangkok.
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American featherweight contender [autotag]Thanh Le[/autotag] added to his impressive ONE Championship resume with an impressive knockout victory at “ONE Championship 106: A New Tomorrow” in Bangkok.
Former LFA champion Le – also a competitor on both “The Ultimate Fighter” and Dana White’s Contender Series – registered his third straight finish, knocking out former Shooto champion [autotag]Ryogo Takahashi[/autotag] in under three minutes at the Impact Arena to stake his claim for a shot at the title currently held by Australia’s Martin Nguyen.
Le mixed up his attack from punches to the head to thumping kicks to the body, and, after the Japanese fighter caught one of his left body kicks, Le loaded up with his fists to score an impressive finish.
With Takahashi hanging on to Le’s left leg, the American fired back with his fists and, after Takahashi finally let go of his leg, Le dropped his man with a big right hand.
Takahashi bounced back up quickly, but Le saw his opportunity and, after a couple of setup shots, connected with a huge left hand to drop his opponent for the second time, and referee Olivier Coste moved in to end the fight at the 2:51 mark of the opening round.
👊 ANOTHER 👊 KNOCKOUT 👊
Thanh Le 🇻🇳🇺🇸 records his third-straight KO since coming to ONE, finishing Ryogo Takahashi 🇯🇵 with a furious first-round combo!@ThanhLeMMA #WeAreONE #ONEChampionship #ANewTomorrow pic.twitter.com/92sY3r2bCt— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) January 10, 2020
“Do what I’m doing: Beat the next guy, and the next guy, and the next guy, and the next guy,” Le said of his future plans following the result. “And when it comes, it comes, and I’m going to take it.
“To be honest with you, he looked a little hurt. I wanted to make sure I finished him. He’s got power in both hands, he’s dangerous, he’s fast … so I knew I had to get him out of there.”
Up-to-the-minute MMA results from ONE Championship 106 include:
