Tang Kai is not one to mince his words. The #1 contender will challenge featherweight champion Thanh Le at ONE 160 this Friday and is convinced he will knock out the champion.
The 26-year-old is riding a nine fight winning streak and has finished his last three opponents. None of these victories have come by way of submission.
He has a background in wrestling but promises that he won’t be shooting for any takedowns in this fight,
“First of all, my wrestling is definitely better than his but I don’t feel like using it in this fight, you can call me a dog if I shoot one single takedown in this fight. A black belt sounds good but in order to submit somebody you have to take them down first. It’s impossible for him to take me down,” he added.
A glimpse of the hard work that Tiger Muay Thai fighter Tang Kai has been put through by our head boxing coach @johnboyboxing over the past few weeks, in preparation for his @ONEChampionship Featherweight World Title fight vs Thanh Le, coming up this Friday at #ONE160 🔥 pic.twitter.com/jpxTp7mNn2
— Tiger Muay Thai (@tigermuaythai) August 23, 2022
Age gap
Kai is clearly expecting a striking match and he is very confident he will win it,
“I’m way better technically than (Thanh Le) when it comes to striking. I have more details in my style, so I’m definitely the better striker.”
This is undoubtedly the biggest fight of Kai’s career and also the biggest test on paper. Le has been totally dominant since arriving in ONE and 12 of his 13 career victories has come via knockout with one by submission.
But Kai is ten years younger than Le and believes that this will play a big role in the outcome,
“His first big weakness is his age, he’s too old. Another one is his weak chin, as soon as I touch that chin, he’ll go down. No problem”
Will we see another epic finish when Tang Kai challenges ONE Featherweight World Champion Thanh Le for the divisional throne?#ONE160 | Fri Aug 26 at 7:30PM SGT
🇺🇸🇨🇦🇹🇭 Watch live on ONE YouTube
🌍 Watch live on PPV 👉 https://t.co/8MeKhRuSs0 pic.twitter.com/iz9c4sYTNB— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) August 22, 2022
Very confident
Kai made a huge statement in his last fight when he knocked out Kim Jae Woong in the first round at ONE: ‘X’. In the wake of that win, he demanded a title shot and said ‘I won’t just beat Le, I’ll ‘kill him’.”
Having subsequently admitted that he may have gotten caught up in the moment the Chinese fighter still seems very confident that he can make it a bad night for the champion,
“There’s no question. I will make him suffer.”
