Thanh Le excited to face one of the "biggest and baddest dudes" in Ilya Freymanov

Former ONE featherweight world champion Thanh Le is on a revenge tour as he aims to earn another shot for the world title.

The Taekwondo specialist dropped his 26 pounds of gold to reigning and defending king Tang Kai during their 25-minute war at ONE 160 in August last year.

To jump right back to that world title shot, Le needs to go through the tough challenge of No.3-ranked divisional contender Ilya Freymanov as they face each other in the main event of ONE Fight Night 15 for the ONE interim featherweight world championship.

The match which emanates live in U.S. primetime on Friday, October 6 inside the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, will be an opportunity for him to get himself prepared for the eventual return of Tang Kai.

But the American-Vietnamese athlete isn’t intimidated by the perfect ONE Championship record of his upcoming Russian opponent; in fact, he is excited to meet him inside the circle and test his skills against the young rising star.

Le shared this in his recent interview with FTSMMA:

“I'm glad he's the guy that I've got to get through to get this strap around my waist again because it's the reason we talk about this in interviews all the time. It's the reason I do this, to fight the biggest and baddest dudes who are the scariest and most skilled.”

Prior to his loss to Tang Kai, the 50/50 and MidCity MMA representative had a perfect 5-0 record in ONE Championship, with all of his wins coming by way of TKO/KO.

Included in this five-fight streak was his title triumph over Martin Nguyen in October 2020 and his successful world title defense against Garry Tonnon in March 2022.

Meanwhile, Freymanov will bring his 2-0 slate into this showdown with Le, who has equally impressive victories over Martin Nguyen and Shinechagtga Zoltsetseg.

ONE Fight Night 15 will emanate from the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, this Friday. The entire event airs live in U.S. primetime free of charge for active Amazon Prime Video subscribers in North America.