Thanh Le reveals he sent a message to Tang Kai to check on his injury: “He couldn’t get cleared”

For over a year now, Vietnamese-American superstar Thanh Le has been fixated on returning to the Circle to get his belt back from Chinese stalwart Tang Kai.

Tang defeated Thanh Le by unanimous decision in 2022 after a hard-fought battle for the ONE featherweight MMA crown. Le has had nothing on his mind but sweet revenge since. The two were reportedly working out a rematch earlier this year, but Tang had to pull out of the bout due to injury.

In a recent interview with ONE Championship, Thanh Le revealed that he actually sent a personal message to Tang Kai to check up on him and get the lowdown on why he pulled out of the fight.

The 38-year-old Louisiana native said:

“It was weird because I messaged him because I was very anxious, obviously, to try to get my belt back and I knew he was injured. So I just shot him a nice friendly message and just was checking up on him selfishly, trying to see what's up.”

“And so there was a little confusion there. He said he was good to go and then apparently he couldn't get cleared. So that wasn't happening. And then I got a different opponent to get an interim title that fell through like two days after I signed it, or something like that. And then Ilya's name came up”.

Thanh Le will now end up taking on No.3-ranked featherweight MMA contender Ilya Freymanov of Russia in Friday night’s main event offering. The two are set to do battle at ONE Fight Night 15: Le vs. Freymanov on Prime Video, which broadcasts live from the iconic Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand on October 6th.

The fight will be for the ONE interim featherweight MMA world title in Tang Kai’s absence.

Fans in the United States and Canada can catch all the action live and absolutely free on Amazon Prime Video.