If there was a Disney story on brothers, I think we got it down – Thanh Le reveals how much his brother has influenced his life, both in and out of the Circle

Thanh Le has one of the most entertaining Instagram feeds for a fighter. It offers a peek of his days in the gym for some serious training mixed with random pranks and shenanigans with his brother, Vinh.

In a recent interview with ONE Championship, the ONE featherweight world champion deflected all the credit for entertaining content to his brother:

“It's kind of cool to let everybody kind of get a sneak peek on our relationship. All those ideas about the pranks and the funny videos, that's all him. I'm pretty boring compared to him. So he's got the good ideas. He's got the funny video. So I appreciate all the followers but you definitely need to go follow him because he's the one.”

Vinh and Thanh Le grew up in a martial arts household and started training in taekwondo early in life. They were coached by their dad as they all traveled, trained and competed together. The brothers were able to learn so much from their dad that they can now coach each other.

While Vinh is yet to make his professional MMA debut, Thanh shared that he’s 4-0 in amateur fights. However, even if he moves up to the pro ranks and later becomes a part of ONE Championship, Thanh believes that they probably would not choose to fight on the same card.

Their relationship as brothers is a selfless one, something that Thanh is proud to have:

“If there was some kind of fairy tale, a Disney story on brothers, I think we got it down pat. It's been pretty good. It's been a great relationship. There's no downsides. It's all positive and all great. And when there is a hiccup, we talk about it, we get it fixed. With things like fighting on the same card, one of us is going to give it up. We'll both try to give it up and we will figure it out. Whoever has the biggest opportunity on that card or it's their turn to fight or whatever, we'll figure that out, you know.”

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Thanh Le to headline ONE: Lights Out

For now, it’s Thanh Le who has the biggest opportunity in their fighting careers. On March 11, Le will defend his ONE featherweight world title against grappling icon Garry Tonon in the headline bout of ONE: Lights Out.

Le ended Martin Nguyen’s reign in the division in October 2020’s ONE: Inside the Matrix. This will be his first world title defense and his brother, Vinh, will surely be leading the charge in preparing him for the fight.

Meanwhile, Tonon’s transition to MMA has been seamless so far. ‘The Lion Killer’ is undefeated in six MMA fights in ONE Championship. His run has included stopping his first five opponents before Koyomi Matsushima took him to the limit in December 2021’s ONE: Big Bang. He is currently the No.2-ranked fighter in the division and will be a very dangerous test for Thanh Le this early in his reign.

With both fighters having a knack for not letting the scorecards decide the outcome of their matches, there’s a huge chance that some’s lights will indeed be out on March 11.