“He’s in Trouble This Time” – Thanh Le Out for Revenge on Tang Kai in Rematch at ONE 166

Thanh Le has been looking forward to redeeming himself from his first loss in the ONE Championship, and he will finally get his chance this weekend.

At ONE 166: Qatar on Friday, March 1, the Vietnamese-American star will face Tang Kai for the undisputed ONE Featherweight MMA World Championship inside the Lusail Sports Arena. The event will be the promotion’s first in Qatar and will be broadcast live and for free on Prime Video for Amazon subscribers across North America.

Thanh Le gives feedback on his performance against Tang Kai at ONE 160

In their initial meeting at ONE 160 in August 2022, both men came in carrying undefeated records in ONE Championship and oozed confidence in coming away with a victory.

However, Tang looked to have a better game plan at the time, neutralizing the then-world titleholder’s best weapons. In an interview with ONE, Le admitted that his adversary had a lot of things going for him, which is why he couldn’t perform up to his standards.

“I think the last fight was a good combination of a really great and well-prepared game plan from Tang and his team and probably the worst performance and decision-making that I’ve made in a really, really long time,” he said. “That was partly because of the things he was doing, so it’s not like I’m trying to take away from the things that he did well. I’m just trying to paint the true picture that it was a perfect storm for him to win that belt, and he ended up doing it,” Than Le continued.

“Those things happen sometimes, and you’ve gotta roll with the punches. You’ve gotta get better. And that’s what I did,” he ended.

Since then, Thanh Le has solidified his position as the top contender in the division after he halted Ilya Freymanov’s rise with a surprising first-round submission win at ONE Fight Night 15 in October last year.

Also Read: Rodtang, Garry Tonon, Roman Kryklia and More: 3 Fights to Make After ONE 165

The American gives his prediction for the rematch against his rival

With a new weapon unleashed in his last fight, the Fifty/50 and MidCity MMA representative has proven that he only got better as time passed, and he believes it won’t be appropriate for the reigning featherweight MMA king.

“The rematch is long overdue. It shouldn’t have taken this long, but it did. The bad part for him is that we had more time to make sure that we sharpened up this game plan. It’s going to be a completely different-looking fight. I’m so excited to be able to show this to my team, my coaches, my family, and the fans out there what should have happened the first time,” said Thanh Le.

He continued, “We had a lot of time to get a nice fight in between, sharpen a bunch of skills, and get some specific game plan stuff implemented. I really can’t mess those things up because we’ve done them so much now. He’s in trouble, man. He’s in trouble this time.”

Will Thanh Le be successful at tying the score against Tang Kai in their rematch? Or will he go 0-2 against Kai at ONE 166? Give us your take in the comments section below.

Also Read: “It Will Be Sweet Revenge” – Garry Tonon Hopeful for Thanh Le to Reclaim Featherweight Gold as He Seeks Rematch