ONE Championship featherweight king Tang Kai and current interim champ Thanh Le will meet in a rematch and title unification bout at ONE 166.
The fight, scheduled to take place in Qatar on March 1 and air live in the U.S. on ONEFC.com, comes over a year after their first encounter ended with Tang winning a unanimous decision over Le to become the ONE featherweight champion. That victory extended Tang’s overall winning streak to 10, including seven straight in ONE; injuries prevented him from defending the belt.
With Tang out of action since August 2022, ONE moved forward with an interim title fight, and Le reclaimed a piece of his former championship when he submitted Ilya Freymanov this past October.
That win brought Le’s record to 6-1 overall in ONE, with the setback to Kai serving as the only loss with the Singapore-based promotion.
Now, Kai and Le will run it back as part of the ONE 166 card, which also features middleweight champion Reinier de Ridder defending his belt against ONE heavyweight and light heavyweight champion Anatoly Malykhin, who seeks to become a three-division champion.
Thanh is such an exiting fighter,
He was great on TUF also
smoking glue en fuego
Qatar is also hosting a new event called Finishers Championship with strongmen fighting in a four man tourny and they have Till and Perry listed as fighters on their website as well.
It will be very interesting to see what Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar etc… do in the combat sports space going forward.
Yessss WAR Thanh that guy is such a vicious striker.
ONE 166: Qatar Full card:
*** ONE Middleweight MMA World Championship: Reinier de Ridder (C) vs. Anatoly Malykhin**
*** ONE Featherweight MMA World Championship: Tang Kai (C) vs. Thanh Le (IC)**
*** ONE Strawweight MMA World Championship: Jarred Brooks (C) vs. Joshua Pacio**
*** Heavyweight MMA: Arjan Bhullar vs. Amir Aliakbari**
*** Catchweight (147lbs) Boxing: Zuhayr Al-Qahtani vs. Mehdi Zatout**
*** Flyweight Submission Grappling: Osamah Almarwai vs. Cleber Sousa**
*** Catchweight (147.75lbs) Muay Thai: Zafer Sayik vs. Vladimir Kuzmin**
*** Flyweight Muay Thai: Zakaria El Jamari vs. Ali Saldoev**
*** Bantamweight Muay Thai: Ali Saldoev vs. Han Zi Hao**
*** Strawweight MMA: Keito Yamakita vs. Jeremy Miado**
ONE Championship returns Friday with its first visit to Qatar – and three title fights at the top of the lineup to celebrate the occasion.
In the main event, light heavyweight champion Reinier de Ridder takes on Anatoly Malykhin. It’s a rematch. Malykhin knocked out de Ridder in December 2022 to win the heavyweight belt while de Ridder was a two-division champion.
In the co-feature, lightweight champion Kai Tang puts his title on the line in a rematch with Thanh Le, whom he beat in August 2022 to win the belt. They were scheduled to meet in mid-2023, but a Tang injury forced the delay.
ONE Championship 166 takes place at Lusail Sports Arena in Al Masrouhiya, Qatar. Check out the results below.
