ONE 166: Tang Kai salutes 38-year-old Thanh Le’s ability to stay in shape "at that old age"

ONE featherweight world champion Tang Kai isn’t taking his first title defense lightly despite the advantages that are in his favor.

Back at ONE 160, he defeated Thanh Le via decision to claim the title, but with how competitive the matchup was on that night, a rematch was sure to be next for both men.

Injuries postponed the second contest between the two top featherweights in the division, but it is now set to go down at ONE 166: Qatar inside the Lusail Sports Arena.

At 38 years old, former champion and current interim titleholder Le knows that the majority of his career is now behind him at this stage. However, that hasn’t stopped him from continuing to compete at the highest level.

His former foe showed respect to his opponent for this aspect during a fight week interview with Sportskeeda MMA.

Tang Kai said:

“In terms of age, Thanh Le actually keeps a very good shape at his age. So I admire and also respect that because that needs a lot of work, to be able to be in that such a great shape at that old age.”

Watch the full interview below:

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Tang Kai is expecting the best version of Thanh Le

It would be unwise of Tang Kai to expect anything less than the best version of his former foe at ONE 166.

Though he may have beaten Thanh Le to become the world champion the first time around, he knows that this will still be a tough contest against a motivated and always dangerous challenger.

For Le, the interim title holds little importance as what he wants most is to reclaim his belt and to avenge his loss to the Chinese world champion.

All roads lead to Qatar on March 1 where the two exciting strikers will go head to head for a second time in what is sure to be a must watch encounter.

ONE 166: Qatar will air live and free via Prime Video for North American viewers with an active subscription on March 1.