Thanh Le sees similarities between him and ‘dangerous’ opponent Ilya Freymanov: “He’s taken out some serious guys”

Thanh Le is excited to share the circle with one of the most dangerous contenders in the featherweight division, Ilya Freymanov.

This Friday night, ONE Championship heads back to the iconic confines of Lumpinee Boxing Stadium with a can’t-miss main event showdown for the interim ONE featherweight MMA world championship. Former titleholder Thanh Le will once again look to claim 26 pounds of gold as he squares off with Russian prospect Ilya Freymanov.

In an interview with FightWave ahead of his long-awaited return to the circle at ONE Fight Night 15, Thanh Le shared his excitement over the opportunity to square off with an opponent who, like himself, has a penchant for delivering big finishes:

“I’m honestly very excited about this matchup,” Le said. “Ilya [Freymanov] is a dangerous opponent. He’s taken out some serious guys. And he’s done it in a similar fashion as to how I entered ONE Championship. You know, you go in there and you knock a bunch of people out -- it’s always a good look. So he’s dangerous. He’s very, very skilled.”

Boasting a 100% finish rate inside the circle, Thanh Le will look to add another big highlight-reel finish to his resume, but doing so will require him to go through a fighter who, like himself, has a knack for putting his opponents away in spectacular fashion.

With back-to-back wins against Martin ‘The Situ-Asian’ Nguyen and Shinechagtga Zoltsetseg inside the circle, Ilya Freymanov has a solid 12-2 overall record, with nine of those wins coming by way of knockout. Needless to say, fireworks are sure to fly when the highly touted Russian prospect returns for a clash with ONE’s resident KO artist, Thanh Le.

Amazon Prime Video subscribers in North America can catch all the action at ONE Fight Night 15 live and for free in U.S. primetime on October 6.