“You Still Want To Kill This Motherf***” – Thanh Le Mocks Tang Kai’s Initial Callout As They Face Off For Eventual Unification Bout

Thanh Le is back on top of ONE’s featherweight mixed martial arts mountain, and he wants to be the only man there as soon as possible. The Vietnamese-American star claimed the ONE Interim Featherweight MMA World Championship this past Friday, October 6, in the main event of ONE Fight Night 15 inside the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.

Against a dangerous knockout artist in Russia’s Ilya Freymanov, Le displayed his rarely-seen grappling prowess to take a heel hook submission win just over a minute into the contest.

Thanh Le believes that Tang Kai won’t be fazed by anything in the way of his plans

Everyone expected an explosive striking battle between the two hard-hitting finishers, and things looked to be headed in that direction early on. However, Freymanov decided to take his rival down, which unfortunately started the beginning of the end for him. 

After the match, Le had a chance to face off with reigning divisional king Tang Kai in the middle of the ring. The pair were scheduled to run back their August 2022 match that saw Tang claim the coveted strap earlier this year, but the Chinese fighter was sidelined by injury. With the 50/50 and Midcity MMA product’s latest win, they will now battle for the undisputed crown, and Tang had some choice words for his rival last Friday evening. 

“First of all, congrats Thanh Le for winning in such a big way,” Tang told Mitch Chilson during the in-ring faceoff. “It surprised me that he won so fast. Secondly, I will stick to my plan – I will knock him out.” Asked what he thought about their rematch and his opponent’s promise of a knockout, Le welcomed the idea and even threw shade at the World Champion. 

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Through the Louisiana native’s 17-fight career, he has only gone the distance once – in his loss to Tang. Determined to not let that happen again, he urged him to be more active when they square off next time.

Thanh Le doesn’t want to depend on the judges for a victory against Tang Kai

“I love it. In order to get knockouts, we have to start coming forward, so I’m going to need some more forward movements, we need to engage some more, little less backing up, and we’ll get some action going,” Le said.  “Round 6 is coming soon. That’s unfinished. I promise you it will be finished. I’ll go in there and put my chin out there. We are not going to decision again.” 

 Tang set a course for Le way back in March 2022, referring to him as a ‘motherf*****’ in an emphatic speech and claiming he wanted to “kill” the then-World Champion after earning his third straight knockout win over erstwhile top-ranked contender Kim Jae Woong at ONE X. 

This clearly left a mark on the new interim titleholder, as he took the opportunity to address the callout and egg on the Chinese warrior in the ring at ONE Fight Night 15. “You still want to kill this motherf*****?” Le asked Tang.

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