ONE Championship ushers in Amazon debut with Singapore double-header in August; Thanh Le vs Tang Kai headlines ONE 160
- Asian martial arts promotion returns to Singapore Indoor Stadium with back-to-back events over two days
- ONE 160 will take place on Friday night on August 26, before ONE 161 goes down on the morning of Saturday, August 27
Thanh Le will defend his featherweight MMA title against Tang Kai with ONE Championship set to stage a blockbuster double-header event over back-to-back days in August at Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Vietnamese-American Le (13-2) and China’s Tang (14-2) will be the headline act on August 26, with ONE 160 going down on a Friday night.
The Asian martial arts promotion will then return to the same arena for ONE 161 the following morning on August 27, for its first live card on Amazon Prime Video in US prime time. The Saturday event will be headlined by a huge rematch between flyweight MMA champion Adriano Moraes (18-3) and Demetrious Johnson (27-3-1).
ONE announced its new US broadcast deal with Amazon in May, but kept fans waiting on details regarding dates of events.
Le’s match-up with Tang was revealed in a virtual media call on Friday.
“I’m super excited to face one of China’s best fighters,” Le said on the call, which included the Post. “Another main event, another tough and skilled opponent. He’s got great feet, he’s quick, powerful. He’s knocked a few people out.
“I don’t think we are gonna go to a decision. He’s been to couple of decisions before that he’s lost, been to one or two he’s won. I don’t know what that looks like. We’re not gonna go the full five rounds, but we’ll take it into deep waters, late into the fourth or fifth round.
“I want him to feel the championship rounds, to feel he doesn’t belong in there for five rounds with the champ. Just another notch on the belt – go in there, finish him, and see what else pops up on the horizon.”
Tang will look to become the first male Chinese champion in ONE, and got the mind games started early.
“I’ve been dreaming of this for a long time,” he said. “I’ve got 100 per cent confidence for this upcoming fight. I respect him [Le] a lot, but he’s also 36 years old, and I think he should really be considering retirement.
“I think 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.”
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It is also expected that ONE will welcome fans at the Singapore Indoor Stadium for the first time since a half-capacity crowd of 6,000 were on hand for its 10th anniversary spectacular, ONE X, in March. ONE has since operated empty-arena shows for its subsequent monthly cards in April, May and June.
But with the US-based UFC selling out the Singapore Indoor Stadium this month with its first pay-per-view in Asia, UFC 275, ONE is likely to put on a stacked card in an effort to do the same.
Further match-ups for the two cards have yet to be announced, but it is expected the promotion will go all out to begin its Amazon era with a bang.
Fans are likely to see ONE featherweight kickboxing champ Superbon face Grand Prix winner Chingiz Allazov, after the two set up a date with respective victories at ONE X in March.
A long-mooted heavyweight MMA title unification bout between divisional king Arjan Bhullar and interim champ Anatoly Malykhin is also likely to be on one of the cards, as is a lightweight title rematch between reigning champ Ok Rae-yoon and former champ Christian Lee.
Canadian-American Angela Lee, the elder sister of Christian Lee, and the promotion’s atomweight MMA champ, could also return to defend her belt against No 1 contender Ham Seo-hee of South Korea.
Strawweight MMA champ Joshua Pacio of the Philippines and American No 1 contender Jarred Brooks could finally throw down on Prime Video, after their title fight was postponed this month because of a “scheduling conflict”.
“Mighty Mouse” Johnson’s fellow former UFC champion, Eddie Alvarez, may also return to action, after more than a year on the sidelines.
