Thanh Le feels Ilya Freymanov has rightfully "earned a spot" to fight for interim world title

After the decision loss to Tang Kai in August 2022 that ended his reign as the undisputed ONE featherweight world champion, Thanh Le thought that he would receive an immediate rematch with him.

The 38-year-old knockout artist even claimed that he messaged the Chinese and he agreed to a second match, but the 27-year-old divisional king wasn’t fully set to fight again.

Le shared these details in his most recent interview on FTSMMA’s YouTube channel. He said:

“I actually messaged Tang Kai a few times. He commented that he was ready to go on a couple of posts and yeah, so I thought that was going to happen as well. But It doesn't look like he's cleared, so they needed to do something with the division.”

Because of this, the Singapore-based organization was prompted to do an interim world title match between Le, the top-ranked contender, and No.3-ranked athlete Ilya Freymanov at ONE Fight Night 15 inside the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium this Friday.

But the American-Vietnamese athlete isn’t complaining about it and instead praised the Russian rising star for earning this all-important match with him.

Le added:

“So obviously Ilya’s done some good things in the division. He earned a spot to fight for the interim title. In my head, obviously, he was the right choice since I was already booked for the rematch so it made sense.”

Whoever takes the victory will certainly get in front of the line against Tang Kai and challenge him for the undisputed ONE featherweight world title in the foreseeable future.

ONE Fight Night 15 will be available to fans in active Amazon Prime Video subscribers in North America live and for free in U.S. primetime this Friday, October 6.