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Due to his injury issues, ONE featherweight MMA world champion Tang Kai watched on as two of the top contenders in his division battled for the interim title.
Thanh Le looked to get back in the win column after losing his featherweight title back at ONE 160 by taking on Ilya Freymanov. Le emerged victorious at ONE Fight Night 15 following a rapid submission that not many could have seen coming.
This set up the huge title unification clash and rematch that is set to go down at ONE 166: Qatar on March 1 as one of three world championship contests at the top of the card.
During an interview with Sportskeeda MMA during fight week, Tang Kai gave his assessment of Le’s last performance and where he believes that Freymanov went wrong in that fight:
“I’m not that surprised about Thanh Le’s Brazilian jiu-jitsu skills because I know that he is a black belt in jiu-jitsu. But I think Ilya had a wrong game plan coming into that because Ilya is a great striker but he chose to grapple with Thanh Le, which is totally wrong because Ilya doesn't have a great wrestling game or, you know, ground game in general.”
Watch the full interview below:
Tang Kai will not make the same mistakes
Though he always had respect for the ground game and finishing ability of Thanh Le, this performance served as a reminder for Tang Kai.
Their first meeting back at ONE 160 showed the Chinese rising star fighting to a strict game plan in order to avoid the unpredictability that Le brings to the table. He is sure to come into the rematch at the Lusail Sports Arena in Qatar with a similar approach after how well it worked the first time around.
Seeing who makes the right adjustments from the lessons learned in their first fight will decide who will unify the belts at featherweight and sit atop the division.
ONE 166: Qatar will air live and free via Prime Video for North American viewers with an active subscription on March 1.
