“Nasty a** KO!!!” - MMA legend Demetrious Johnson has all the love for Tang Kai’s calculated finish of Thanh Le

Thanh Le wasn’t the only one floored by Tang Kai’s impressive performance at ONE 166 in Qatar.

At the Lusail Sports Arena, reigning ONE featherweight MMA world champion Tang Kai stepped inside the circle to face interim world champion Thanh Le. Though the pair got off to a bit of a slow start, it was just a matter of time before one of the two heavy hitters exploded.

As it turns out, it was Tang who would blast Le with a crushing right hand in the closing seconds of the third round to become the undisputed ONE featherweight MMA world champion.

Following the highlight reel finish, ONE flyweight MMA world champion and pound-for-pound great Demetrious Johnson offered his take on Tang’s performance:

“Daammnn nasty ass KO!!! KAI did an amazing job of closing the void slowly as the fight went in! Congratz KAI #ONE166,” Johnson wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

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Tang Kai felt much more at ease going into ONE 166 rematch with Thanh Le

With his second straight win over Thanh Le inside the circle, Tang Kai moved to 8-0 in ONE Championship with 18 career wins overall.

Stepping into his first fight as a ONE world champion, Tang revealed that going into the rematch at ONE 166 felt significantly different than it did when he was the challenger in his first meeting with the Vietnamese-American:

“First time, I got a tremendous pressure because that was when I was challenging Thanh Le,” he said in a post-fight interview. “But this time, I’m the champion. I just came here to prove it, I'm the real champion. So I have no pressure. I have proved to myself that I’m a real champion.”

If you missed any of the action or want to relive an epic night in ONE Championship history, the ONE 166: Qatar replay can be watched on demand via Amazon Prime Video.