ONE Championship: Thanh Le says he’ll turn Martin Nguyen ‘into a wrestler real quick’
- Challenger sees featherweight title fight at Inside The Matrix staying on the feet ‘for a little while’ before champ ‘gets a feel for my speed’
- Vietnamese-American Le promises ‘fireworks’ and insists he’s ready to go the distance for first time in his career if need be
Thanh Le has told ONE Championship fans to expect “fireworks” when he takes on Martin Nguyen at Inside the Matrix in Singapore on October 30.
But the 35-year-old Vietnamese-American title challenger (11-2) thinks featherweight champ Nguyen (13-3) will want to take this battle of ferocious strikers to the floor soon after the action gets under way in the Circle.
“For this fight you’re gonna see a ton of fireworks,” Le told SCMP MMA. “Two strikers. Martin is well-rounded. Nobody has seen yet if I’m well rounded or not, so I’m really excited for how this fight plays out and to see where this fight goes.
“I see it staying on the feet for a little while. I think Martin is gonna get a feel for my speed, for my directness, for my movement, for my footwork, and then I think he’ll turn into a wrestler and a grappler real quick.”
No 3-ranked Le, a former competitor of Dana White’s Contender Series who trains out of Louisiana in the US, is coming off three knockout wins since signing with Asian martial arts organisation ONE.
Vietnamese-Australian Nguyen, also a former lightweight champ in ONE, trains out of Sanford MMA in Florida alongside ONE middleweight and light heavyweight champ Aung La N Sang, under the tutelage of renowned coach Henri Hooft.