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Thanh Le is used to cracking the skulls of his opponents, so a submission win for him was as rare as it could get.
In an interview with ONE Championship, the Vietnamese-American star recalled his lightning-submission win over Ilya Freymanov for the ONE interim featherweight MMA world title.
Le, a natural striker, captured his first submission win in ONE Championship when he forced Freymanov to tap to a nasty heel hook 62 seconds into their match at ONE Fight Night 15.
The 38-year-old said he felt he was in the proverbial zone in the few seconds leading up to his stunning submission win.
Thanh Le noted:
“Things were hitting by itself, just like my striking does, and that was such a good feeling. He did a decent job of fighting through a couple of the positions, not letting me get a really clean rip on that first heel hook, even though it did hurt him a little bit. Like I could feel things pop and stuff. So that caused a little bit of a panic from him, you know.”
He added:
“I felt his body energy, and when I was trying to rip out of that second one, it just really put him in a bad spot, and obviously we ended up getting the finish.”
Le’s win ultimately led him to a unification match against Tang Kai, the only man to beat him in ONE Championship, for the undisputed ONE featherweight MMA world title at ONE 166.
Their highly anticipated rematch goes down this Friday at Lusail Sports Arena in Qatar.
Thanh Le promises a barnburner against Tang Kai in Qatar
Known for his spectacular 100 percent finish rate, Thanh Le is determined to extend that ungodly record when he faces Tang Kai for the second time in ONE Championship.
In an interview with the promotion, Le said he would unleash everything in his arsenal to exact revenge against Tang in Qatar:
“He's in for either a short night or a long night, it's going to be a lot of fun to watch.”
ONE 166 is ONE Championship’s first on-site event in Qatar and is available live and free to all Prime Video subscribers in the United States and Canada.
