In the buildup to ONE Championship 160, challenger Kai Tang has done all the trash talking. As for featherweight champion Thanh Le, you might call him a quiet assassin.
“You tell me what’s a little more scary: the guy that’s calm, quiet, comes out, and kills or the one that runs his mouth a little bit?” Le told MMA Junkie Radio. “I know which one I’m worried about. …
“There is not hate or anger that needs to get me fired up to fight. I could wake up in the morning, go play with my daughter in the yard, somebody comes into the room randomly, and I could literally take them out, assassinate them, do what I need to do. Take care of my family, protect my family, then go right back to play.”
That’s Thanh Le for you in a nutshell.
Le, 36, is set to try and defend his title for a second time when he takes on 26-year-old Tang on Friday at ONE Championship 160 in Singapore.
Le (13-2) won the title in October 2020 when he submitted then-champion Martin Nguyen. His first title defense was this past March, a ground-and-pound TKO finish of grappling specialist Garry Tonon in just 56 seconds.
Le said he takes pride in the fact that he “didn’t find a way” to the title and instead “fought the best guys I could fight” to earn it.
In Tang (14-2), Le faces a much younger striking specialist who’s been on a roll with nine consecutive wins – the past three by knockout. Le acknowledges the danger Tang presents and sees some similarities in how they fight.
“If you zoom out enough, conceptually I think he brings a very similar game to what I do,” Le said. “I think our tools are different, and our approach on some of that is different, but he does a good job staying safe. He does a good job with movement. He moves his feet very well, which isn’t very common in this game honestly. But, yeah, he does standout. He has great, powerful and sharp striking, which is a great combination for him along with his feet. … A huge danger and very different, in some ways better and some ways worse than all the fighters I’ve fought before.”
