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You know a fighter is confident going into a fight when he says that he is willing to bet his life on it. This is exactly what former ONE featherweight world champion and now No.1-ranked contender Thanh Le stated ahead of his title fight.
In a recent interview with ONE Championship, Le said that he’s going to prove that he's on a different level by finding and exploiting No.3-ranked Ilya Freymanov’s holes in his arsenal.
The former divisional kingpin said:
“I just don't think it plays out that way. That's why we signed it up, signed on the dotted line, that's why. We think we're the best in the world. But if it does work out like that, the man will win. But I'm betting against that with my life. We're going to find some holes. We're going to make him do what he likes to do and just expose some openings.”
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This statement by the 38-year-old was a response to the Russian’s claim that he is better than him. Both Le and Freymanov have an impressive record under the world's largest martial arts organization, where all their victories were by way of stoppage.
The pair are set to meet in the main event of ONE Fight Night 15 for the ONE interim featherweight world title this Friday, October 6, inside the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.
The Vietnamese-American has knocked out all five of his opponents: Yusup Saadulaev (second-round knockout in May 2019), Kotetsu Boku (first-round knockout in August 2019), Ryogo Takahashi (first-round knockout in January 2020), Martin Nguyen (third-round knockout in October 2020), and Garry Tonon (first-round knockout in March 2022). Le’s lone loss was a unanimous decision from Tang Kai in August 2022.
Meanwhile, Freymanov has a first-round TKO victory over Martin Nguyen in October 2022 and a first-round submission win against Shinechagtga Zoltsetseg in June 2023 to set up this interim world title showdown with Le.
ONE Fight Night 15 will be available live and for free for active Amazon Prime Video subscribers in North America in U.S. primetime this Friday, October 6.
