Thanh Le made the first successful defense of his ONE World Championship with a win over grappling wizard Garry Tonon. Furthermore, the Featherweight King did so in just 56 seconds.

The main event of ONE: LIGHTS OUT saw the taekwondo specialist brutally knockout ‘The Lion Killer’.

After the fight, the 50/50 and MidCity MMA representative reflected where he stands in the pound-for-pound rankings.

Le said, “This is gonna sound arrogant or whatever, but you’ve got to believe in yourself or you’ll never get one of these things [world championships], right.”

“Before I started with the organization [ONE Championship], I was number 1, in my head. That’s where you gotta be if you’re gonna be a fighter that’s going to reach a high level and do crazy things in this sport.”

“So, I was number 1, I still am number 1, and I always will be number 1 until someone proves me wrong,” concluded Le.

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Also, the Featherweight king conveyed that he doesn’t pay much attention to the pound-for-pound rankings. Le is undefeated inside the ONE Circle and has never gone to scorecards.

Thanh Le shuts down an old notion

A highly regarded belief in sports has been – You simply aren’t considered a real champion until you have defended your title successfully. However, Thanh Le does not agree with it.

When asked whether he feels like a champion, now that he has defended his belt for the first time, Le said, “I felt like a world champion, before I was a world champion.”

Le further offered that when someone beats a champion, who has done hard work to achieve that status, one should be considered the champion. Thus, Le suggested that he felt like a World Champion, after beating a tough opponent like Martin Nguyen for the ONE Featherweight championship.

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Were you impressed by Thanh Le’s performance at ONE: LIGHTS OUT? Let us know in the comments.