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Reigning ONE featherweight world champion Thanh Le is gearing up for his next world title defense, but he will also be watching the exciting main event at ONE 159 this Friday night.
On July 22, two-division ONE world champion ‘The Dutch Knight’ Reinier de Ridder will stake his middleweight gold against former world titleholder Vitaly Bigdash in what is a clash between arguably the two best fighters in the division.
De Ridder and Bigdash offer fans a unique clash of styles, with the Dutchman employing a grappling-heavy base while the Russian stalwart brings more of a well-rounded skill set.
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Thanh Le, however, feels that none of that will matter when De Ridder gets a hold of Bigdash in close quarters. The Vietnamese-American superstar believes De Ridder may be too much of a challenge for Bigdash to overcome, and he sees De Ridder retaining his ONE gold.
Thanh Le told ONE Championship in a recent interview:
“I am definitely going to lean toward RDR. I think his grappling is just too high-level for the matchup. I think he ends up getting the takedown and getting him toward the back.”
De Ridder is currently unbeaten in ONE Championship and owns a perfect 15-0 professional record overall, 13 of those wins being finishes, with a whopping 10 submissions. He has beaten and dominated everyone who has stepped into the circle with him.
Thanh Le hard at work for upcoming featherweight world title defense against Tang Kai at ONE 160
Not to be too sidetracked and let his focus slip away from him, Le is hard at work in the gym, honing his skills with his team ahead of his upcoming ONE featherweight world title defense against streaking Chinese knockout artist Tang Kai.
Le will lock horns with Tang in the co-main event of ONE 160, which broadcasts live from the Singapore Indoor Stadium on Friday, August 26. The event is part of a massive doubleheader for ONE Championship, with the tentpole ONE 161: Moraes vs. Johnson II taking place just hours later, and airs live via Amazon Prime Video on US primetime.
The Vietnamese-American veteran enters his next defense riding a five-fight winning streak, and is a perfect 5-0 in the circle. Meanwhile, Tang is on an even hotter run, having won his last nine, including six under the ONE Championship banner.
Without a doubt, Thanh Le and Tang Kai are the two most explosive featherweights in the promotion, making this showdown the most anticipated fight in the division’s history.
