Thanh Le plans to use ‘the whole playbook’ against ‘dangerous’ Ilya Freymanov

Thanh Le is fired up to begin his quest to regain status as the featherweight MMA king of ONE Championship when he returns this week.

In the main event of ONE Fight Night 15 inside the legendary Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, the former divisional king takes on No.3-ranked Ilya Freymanov for the interim world title.

Having blasted past five world-class opponents throughout his tenure at the Singapore-based promotion, the American-Vietnamese athlete suffered a rude awakening when he defended his crown against Tang Kai at ONE 160 in August last year.

For once, his striking game was only second to his opponent. As the match progressed, the Chinese superstar only got better and better, which convinced all three judges at Circleside to hand him the win after a 25-minute duel.

Using that loss as a motivation, the New Orleans native and division's top-ranked martial artist hopes to get back to his self of old against a rather tricky Freymanov, while he waits for the Chinese athlete's return.

Having assessed the Russian’s past two appearances on the global stage, Thanh Le had this to say during an interview with From The Stands MMA last week:

“I think there's a lot of advantages. A lot on the feet and a lot on the ground, so we kind of have the whole playbook to kind of play with in this fight, and I think he's a dangerous opponent. He's very, very good.”

Watch the interview here:

As good as his opponent may be, Thanh Le isn’t too concerned about things out of his control. He knows he can only do much about his rival’s knockout power and all-around abilities.

However, some factors are within his control – and that is to ensure he’s back at his best when he returns to compete in the main event of ONE Fight Night 15 this Friday, October 6.

North American fans with an active Amazon Prime Video subscription can catch all the action live and for free in U.S. primetime.