ONE Championship: Thanh Le says Tang Kai’s ‘retirement’ jibe will be his ‘downfall’
- Featherweight champion, 36, laughs off Chinese knockout artist’s suggestion he is too old and should ‘spend time with his family’
- Le says Tang will ‘see how slow and old’ he is when they clash in ONE 160 main event in Singapore on August 26
ONE Championship featherweight king Thanh Le has warned next title challenger Tang Kai he is still firmly in his prime – and has plenty of years left at the top.
The pair will clash in the main event of ONE 160 on August 26 – the first part of a two-day double header at Singapore Indoor Stadium, to usher in the Asian martial arts promotion’s debut on Amazon Prime Video in the US.
But they got into it verbally on a pre-fight conference call with China-based media, which included the Post, when the 26-year-old Tang suggested Vietnamese-American Le may be past his best, and should think about hanging up his gloves.
“I respect him a lot, but he’s also 36 years old. I think he should really be considering retirement,” Tang said. “This could be his retirement fight maybe. He has a beautiful family – after this one, he should go back to them and have a normal life.”
When the Post asked Le for his response, he smiled. “Thank you. My family is beautiful, and I do spend a lot of time with them. I appreciate that. I am a little older – I’m very old for this fight game,” Le said.
“This though,” he added, pointing to his head, “is young, spry, in its prime. Physically and mentally I feel really good, and I think that’s going to be the downfall of a lot of people to come and try to take this belt.
“On paper I’m a little older, slower, might not be able to train as much. I’ve been doing this so long maybe my body hurts. But we’ll step into the ring and we’ll see how slow and how things come out this body.”