5 Things You Might Not Know About Thanh Le

Thanh Le made the One Championship featherweight division his domain more than a year ago and shows no desire of relinquishing his power anytime soon.

The 36-year-old knockout artist will defend his undisputed throne at 145 pounds when he takes on Kai Tang in the One 160 co-main event on Aug. 26 at Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang, Singapore. Le enters his latest title defense on the heels of a five-fight winning streak. He last appeared at One “Lights Out,” where he needed just 56 seconds to dismiss five-time Eddie Bravo Invitational champion Garry Tonon with punches on March 11.

As Le approaches his upcoming confrontation with the surging Tang, here are five things you might not know about him:

1. He has bluegrass in his blood.

Le was born to a Vietnamese father and American mother on Aug. 28, 1985 in Owensboro, Kentucky—a city of some 60,000 people on the western side of the state. He shares a hometown with three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Darrell Waltrip and onetime Golden Globe Award-winning actor Johnny Depp.

2. Resilience was an early enduring trait.

The 50/50 BJJ representative made his professional mixed martial arts debut at the age of 28 in November 2013, submitting to a first-round rear-naked choke from Robert Dunn under the Renaissance MMA banner. Le responded with six consecutive first-round finishes of his own and did not lose again until more than four years later.

3. No one questions the lethality of his repertoire.

Le has finished nearly one-third (four) of his 13 career victories in 90 seconds or less. In addition to his aforementioned rout of Tonon, he buried Shawn Fitzsimmons with elbows in 27 seconds at World Fighting Championships 27 on Sept. 12, 2014, punched out Cody James in 40 seconds at a Mid City Fight Productions event on June 24, 2016 and blew apart Kotetsu Boku with punches in 88 seconds at One “Dreams of Gold” on Aug. 16, 2019.

4. He somehow slipped through the cracks.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship twice whiffed on the opportunity to sign Le. He appeared on Season 22 of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series in 2015—he was eliminated by Martin Svensson in the Round of 16—and then competed on Season 1 of Dana White’s Contender Series, where he cut down Lazar Stojadinovic with a head kick and follow-up punches in the second round of their July 18, 2017 pairing. Le later captured the interim Legacy Fighting Alliance featherweight title before agreeing to terms with One Championship.

5. Staying power has not been an issue.

Le remains one of only six men—Honorio Banario, Koji Oishi, Jadamba Narantungalag, Marat Gafurov and Martin Nguyen are the others—who have held the undisputed One Championship featherweight title. He laid claim to the crown with a third-round technical knockout of Nguyen at One “Inside the Matrix” on Oct. 30, 2020. Soon to surpass 700 days, Le’s reign ranks as the second-longest in the history of the 155-pound division behind Nguyen (1,169).