Thanh Le expects full on war against Tang Kai: “He’s going to come ready to fight”

After losing his ONE featherweight MMA world championship last year, Thanh Le has been chasing the rematch with the last man to beat him.

At ONE 160 in August, 2022, Tang Kai became the first man to take Le to a decision where he won convincingly on the scorecards.

With the champion being known for his devastating striking and knockout ratio, the Chinese challenger came into the fight with a perfect game plan to shut him down which he stuck to on fight night.

At ONE Fight Night 12, the pair were set to run it back in a straight rematch. However, an injury forced the defending champion out of the contest.

In his absence, Le returned at ONE Fight Night 15 on October 6 for an interim title showdown with Ilya Freymanov.

Presenting a completely different style of challenge for Le, the former champ was able to showcase his experience and development in all areas of martial arts by securing a heel hook submission in the opening minute of the fight.

With the interim title now sitting on his shoulder, he will now turn his attention to the rematch with Tang Kai under the ONE Championship banner once the champion is back in fighting shape.

During his post-event interview after submitting Freymanov, Thanh Le spoke about the match-up and how he expects his opponent to approach the fight this time around:

“Tang Kai is like an awesome competitor and he's going to come ready to fight. Obviously, he's going to be smart with his game plan. And that's what he should do if he wants to keep that belt, but he's not because we're going to go out there and we're going to take it from him.”

Watch the full post-event interview below:

ONE Fight Night 15 is available to watch back in full via the free event replay on Amazon Prime Video for North American viewers.