Thanh Le on Ilya Freymanov’s attempt to escape submission: “He did what I would have done”

At ONE Fight Night 15, both Thanh Le and the fans expected a striking war in the main event of the evening.

Last Friday, October 6, the final fight of the night would see an interim world champion crowned in the ONE featherweight division due to the injury sustained by Tang Kai.

In a match-up that was guaranteed to deliver a highlight, the former divisional king met the newest top contender in the division, Ilya Freymanov.

With both men’s impressive track record for finishing fights on the feet, this contest had the aura of whoever lands clean first leaves with the belt.

Instead, Le showed his experience as a high-level competitor and his continued evolution as a mixed martial artist.

Though he is known for his striking skills in ONE Championship, it was the submission arsenal that got the job done at the iconic Lumpinee Boxing Stadium.

Securing a heel hook, Le got the tap in just over a minute of the very first round, bringing a swift and unexpected end to this featherweight showdown that many expected to be a shoot out.

During his interviews after the event, Thanh Le spoke about the finish and how he believes he would have reacted similarly to Freymanov in that moment.

As two similar competitors, the former champion said that his opponent took the same steps he would have taken but at that point, it was too late and his experience prevailed:

“If I got to pick one it would have been that exact setup under a monster striker. He did what I would have done to somebody under me attacking legs. We've seen how that has gone and he was going to try the same exact thing and you know, work our way through things like that and we pay attention to the dangers and how jiu-jitsu [can leave you open for strikes]. I guess our understanding of it should be approached because we make sure that we can't get hammers dropped on us and then we work towards the things that we’re looking for.”

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 with an active subscription.