Thanh Le has had to wait a long time to fighter after losing his ONE Championship featherweight title to Tang Kai. But he looked like a man in a hurry at Lumpinee Stadium this morning, submitting Ilya Freymanov in the opening minute.
They traded kicks in the opening exchanges. Le drove forwards firing off punches and Freymanov who was trapped against the ropes decided to take the fight down.
OUT OF NOWHERE! 🤯
Thanh Le 🇻🇳🇺🇸 heel hooks Ilya Freymanov in 62 seconds to claim the ONE Interim Featherweight MMA World Title! 👑 #ONEFightNight15 pic.twitter.com/oFxevrNbq0
— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) October 7, 2023
Bad decision
It proved to be a bad decision for the Russian. Le immediately rolled into a leg lock and forced Freymanov to focus on defending the submission attempt instead of completing the takedown.
Le was not letting go and the heel hook eventually forced Freymanov to tap at the 1:02 mark. With the win he improves to 14-3 while Freymanov drops to 12-3.
Le was crowned as the interim featherweight champion and also earned a $50,000 USD performance bonus. Afterwards he faced off with regular champion Tang Kai who he will face next in a unification match.
The rematch is ON 😤
Who you got for the undisputed ONE Featherweight MMA World Title?
Watch the ONE Fight Night 15 Replay on Prime Video 👉 https://t.co/LF67g9KCVe pic.twitter.com/Emz5YZVBjw
— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) October 7, 2023
Best of the rest
Earlier in the evening Joshua Pacio beat Mansur Malachiev by decision. The Russian appeared to suffer an injury in the opening round but it didn’t stop him from taking Pacio down.
He wasn’t able to do much damage on the ground though and never came close to securing a submission, unlike Pacio who had a tight guillotine choke at one stage. With the win he improves to 21-4 while Malachiev drops to 11-1
ONE Fight Night 15, Bangkok, October 6th
Thanh Le def. Ilya Freymanov via Submission (Heel hook) at 1:02 of R1
Kickboxing: Jonathan Di Bella (c) def. Danial Williams via Decision (Unanimous)
Kickboxing: Tawanchai PKSaenchaigym def. Jo Nattawut via Decision (Unanimous)
Submission Grappling: Mikey Musumeci def. Shinya Aoki via Submission (Heel hook) at 3:05 of R1
Joshua Pacio def. Mansur Malachiev via Decision (Unanimous)
Zhang Lipeng def. Timofey Nastyukhin via TKO (Punches) at 3:18 of R1
Hu Yong def. Eko Roni Saputra via TKO (Punches) at 1:03 of R1
Muay Thai: Phetjeeja Lukjaoporongtom def. Celest Hansen via TKO (Doctor stoppage) at 1:01 of R3
Hiroyuki Tetsuka def. Jin Tae-Ho via Submission (Armbar) at 4:45 of R1
Muay Thai: Shakir Al-Tekreeti def. Bampara Kouyate via Decision (Unanimous)
