SUMMARY
- ONE Championship is traveling to Qatar for a historic combat sports event this weekend.
- ONE 166: Qatar takes place on March 1.
The ONE 166: Qatar co-headliners have thrown down the gauntlet at the event’s final pre-fight press conference this week.
The blockbuster Friday, March 1, event takes place at Lusail Sports Arena in Lusail, Qatar. The card is headlined by the ONE Middleweight MMA World Title battle between divisional king Reinier de Ridder and two-weight king Anatoly Malykhin.
In the co-main event, ONE Featherweight MMA World Champion Tang Kai returns from injury to defend his crown against interim titleholder Thanh Le. Tang is determined to bring the 26-pound featherweight MMA belt back to China once again.
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“I’m so proud to be the first Chinese MMA World Champion and, for this Friday, I’m going to win this rematch against Thanh Le. I love Qatar as a country, I’m so proud to be here, and on Friday night, I’ll put on an epic show against Thanh Le and for the fans,” he said.
The pair engaged in an action-packed five round battle in 2022, with Tang coming out on top in a close judges’ call.
Thanh Le predicts knockout in ONE 166: Qatar co-headliner
Thanh Le, on the other hand, is desperate to exact revenge on Tang Kai and reclaim the ONE Featherweight MMA World Title. The American is one of the most dangerous knockout artists in the talent-rich featherweight division. He says that this time, he is planning to leave the judges out of the equation after coming up short on the scorecards in their first fight.
“Y’all know I’m going to be bringing the fireworks. This 100 percent finish rate is not going down at all. He is getting finished, round one, round two. We have unfinished business, that last fight is not done,” he said.
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Le held the featherweight MMA strap from 2020 until 2022, when he was dethroned by Tang. Normally renowned for his punching power, the 38-year-old bagged the ONE Interim Featherweight MMA World Title with a stunning heel-hook submission win over surging Russian Ilya Freymanov this past October.
The first-round finish set up the highly anticipated rematch with Tang for the undisputed featherweight MMA crown at ONE 166: Qatar.
