Before ONE featherweight world champion Thanh Le has set a goal to get his belt back from Tang Kai.
Le lost the world championship in August at ONE 160 after a great performance from his challenger who executed a perfect game plan. By doing so, Kai made history by becoming China’s first men’s MMA world champion.
In an interview with From The Stands MMA, Thanh Le talked about his plans for the future and the possibility of an important rematch with Tang Kai:
“This is just one step on the road to success. We’ll go back, get that belt back, secure it a few times, do what we need to do in that department to make sure we’re on top of the mountain. Then we can start looking at lightweight. “
During the interview, Le also talked about Tang Kai’s game plan during their fight and what surprised him about the competition.
Le mentioned that Kai would give up space and not trade him after taking an early lead in the skirmish through his foot kicks. The damage from kicks to the Chinese striker’s legs was a huge part of Le’s slowdown for most of the game.
After damaging the champion’s leg, Tang Kai stuck to his plan and was able to control the tempo of the match on his way to victory.
Watch the full interview below:
Tang Kai Decides Thanh Le To Be China’s First Men’s MMA World Champion
In the ONE 160 co-main event, ONE world featherweight champion Thanh Le managed to defend her world championship and flawless record at ONE against China’s Tang Kai.
The highly anticipated match was fueled by a lot of discussion during the build process. Finally, the time for exchanging words was over.
In the opening round, both fighters tried to map out each other’s plans and timing, with the most important hits landing at the champion’s feet. After landing kicks to the leg in the first round, Tang Kai began to regain the tempo of the game and inflicted obvious damage to Le’s leg. He even dropped the defending champion and took away some of his flexible movements.
From that point, it was clear Thanh Le would need a big hit to change the game, so he switched to Southpaw. However, Tang Kai still strictly adhered to his game plan and did not join Le and risk taking the lead. Instead, he continued to throw kicks with his calves and avoided danger to himself.
After taking control of the match early, Tang Kai won and made history as China’s first MMA champion after a flawless performance.
