ONE Championship: Thanh Le gets shout out from Dustin Poirier, and says he’s pound for pound No 1
- Featherweight MMA champ underlines his credentials with stunning 56-second finish of BJJ specialist Garry Tonon
- ‘I have death in these hands,’ the Vietnamese-American says – ‘that puts me high on some lists’
Thanh Le would have been hard pressed to envisage a more perfect performance than the one he gave during Friday night’s ONE: Lights Out main event in Singapore.
The Vietnamese-American easily handled the vaunted ground game of American BJJ specialist Garry Tonon en route to a stunning 56-second knockout, retaining his ONE Championship featherweight title in his first defence.
With five knockout wins in as many fights, the 36-year-old is now creeping into the conversation for ONE’s hypothetical pound-for-pound top five – though he already sees himself as No 1.
“For me, this is gonna sound arrogant or whatever but you’ve got to believe in yourself or you’ll never get one of these things,” Le told the Post on a virtual media scrum, as he tapped the championship belt on his shoulder.
“But before I started in this organisation I was No 1 in my head. That’s where you gotta be if you’re gonna be a fighter who reaches a high level in this sport. So I was No 1, I still am No 1, and I always will be No 1 until someone proves me wrong.”