“It’s going to make for fireworks” - Thanh Le expects nothing but a barnburner against Ilya Freymanov

Thanh Le is hungry for gold and he expects nothing less than an absolute brawl against Ilya Freymanov.

The former world champion will take on Freymanov for the ONE interim featherweight MMA world championship in the main event of ONE Fight Night 15 this Friday, US primetime, at Lumpinee Boxing Stadium.

Ahead of his world title bout, Le told ONE Championship that he’s aware of Freymanov’s mindset heading to Bangkok.

This will be the first time that Freymanov challenges for gold while Le looks to make his way back after losing the ONE featherweight MMA world title to Tang Kai in 2022.

Le, the no.1-ranked featherweight MMA contender, said:

“This is everything I’ve worked for, and it’s obviously the most important thing to him too. So he’s going to get the best Thanh Le, I am guaranteed to get the best Ilya, and it’s going to make for fireworks.”

Le and Freymanov are two of the most lethal featherweights in the promotion and both have an astounding 100 percent finish rate during their run.

Freymanov made his ONE Championship debut at ONE on Prime Video 2 and proceeded to shock the world when he knocked out former ONE featherweight and lightweight world champion Martin Nguyen in the opening round.

The Russian mauler then secured another first-round finish when he submitted Mongolia’s Shinechagtga Zoltsetseg at ONE Fight Night 11 this past June.

Le, meanwhile, went a ridiculous 5-0 run during his first five matches in the promotion. The Vietnamese-American star went on a war path and knocked out Yusup Saadulaev, Kotetsu Boku, Ryogo Takahashi, Nguyen, and Garry Tonon.

ONE Fight Night 15, just like all of ONE Championship’s Amazon cards, is available live and free to all Prime Video subscribers in North America.