There is no doubt Thanh Le is 100 per cent focused on challenging Martin Nguyen for the ONE Championship featherweight title. But the 35-year-old Vietnamese-American (11-2) revealed he has future designs on another belt in the Asian martial arts organisation. The No 3-ranked Le faces “The Situ-Asian” (13-3) on a stacked Inside The Matrix card in Singapore on October 30. The match-up makes sense, given Nguyen dispatched No 2 Koyomi Matsushima (12-4) via second-round TKO last time out in August 2019, and fended off No 1 Christian Lee (13-3) twice before “The Warrior” moved up and won the lightweight title last year. Lee defends his title against Iuri Lapicus in the co-main event next weekend, but with a heap of challengers lining up below the Moldovan, it is unlikely to think the Hawaii-based fighter will come down to his old division any time soon, though. “No, it doesn’t bother me at all [that Christian is ranked No 1] – I think they’re doing a good job with the rankings,” Le said. “It makes sense. They fought twice. He’s lightweight champ, and we’ll see where it goes from there. “But maybe we’ll keep an eye on Christian and see if we can visit him in his division later on,” Le added. “The only thing I will rule out is going down [to bantamweight] because I won’t be able to make that weight, but up one would be nice.” Le knows he is likely to be tied up first with Nguyen for at least another fight, though, should he win the belt from the 31-year-old Vietnamese-Australian. ONE: Christian Lee lays down law to Lapicus ahead of title clash “I’m never really super-focused on what’s past what’s in front of me, but I think Martin’s done such a great job as a champ,” Le said. “He’s held himself as a respectable champion, has beaten a ton of guys, earned his spot here as one of the best featherweights ONE has seen. “It doesn’t matter if I go out there and put him out in 25 seconds, or it takes a decision to beat this man – if I do come back with the belt, I think he does deserve a rematch.” Don’t think Le would be unwilling to clean out his own division on take on all challengers at featherweight, however. The No 5-ranked grappling sensation Garry Tonon is looming increasingly large on the horizon, after a 5-0 start to his fledgling MMA career. “Everybody knows who Garry is, he’s had a couple of good fights,” Le said. “If I were to take this belt from Martin, I’d like to see whoever challenges next – he’s in the top five – fight a top five guy and earn your right to fight for the belt. That’s perfect, that’s what guys do to get their spot. “It would only make sense for them to do that, whoever the next guy they decide to put in line for the belt is. But definitely Martin is the only thing that’s on my brain and in front of my face right now. Tonon told SCMP MMA earlier this year several fighters in the division have turned him down out of fear of facing someone with an unbeaten record “who is likely to submit them”. But Le wouldn’t be one of them. “As a top-ranked fighter in the division or as the champ – if things play out the way we want them to – you don’t get to turn down fights,” he said. “You are champion. You fight the best guys. If anything in your little brain wants to tell you maybe not to take the fight, that’s the first fight you should take. That’s why you do this sport. “Did they earn this spot? He’s next. You don’t turn down fights, you take fights like that. That’s the point of this, you don’t try to tiptoe around the good guys or the scary guys or the specialists because guys have done that to me and it makes no sense, and I’m not gonna do that to anybody.”