Thanh Le looking to take advantage of a weakness in Tang Kai’s game

Thanh Le will step into the spotlight at ONE 160 on August 26 to defend his ONE featherweight title against No.1-ranked contender Tang Kai.

Undefeated under the ONE Championship banner, Le will be defending his belt for the second time since taking care of business against Martin Nguyen at ONE: Inside the Matrix to capture ONE gold.

In February, Le returned to the ONE circle to defend his strap against submission grappling icon Garry Tonon. It only took Le 56 seconds to put away ‘The Lion Killer’ by knockout. Now, Le is preparing for a tough fight against Tang, who is 10 years his junior and also unbeaten in ONE Championship.

During a ONE 160 virtual press conference appearance, Le discussed the upcoming bout with Tang and some of his observations while studying tape on his opponent.

“I think I’ve got pretty good insight on what he does well, because he does a lot of things that I do. I think that I just do them a little better. But you can see where our minds are during a fight. You can see his overall tactics and strategy kind of play out… why the decisions were made at the time and all those good things.”

Thanh Le compliments Tang Kai’s fight IQ ahead of ONE 160 showdown

Thanh Le complimented Tang’s fight IQ, particularly for a relatively young fighter at 26 years old. With that said, Le believes he has observed opportunities to manipulate and take advantage of Tang’s style of fighting.

“We do spend a lot of time kind of taking a look and just seeing what he likes to do in certain situations, his responses, what he does to draw things out. But I think he’s a smart fighter. I think he has as well developed of a fight IQ that you could have at a young age. Not a ton of experience, but very fiery. And that’s something that we’re here to take advantage of.”

This will be the first time that Thanh Le has faced a Chinese-born fighter, something that he has expressed general excitement about. On the flip side, Tang has discussed the importance of winning this fight for his country. Should Tang win, he would be MMA’s first Chinese world champion.

Fans can catch all the action at ONE 160 live at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, with tickets on presale soon.