Team Lakay Standout Predicts Coronation Of New Featherweight King At ONE 160

Filipino dynamo Danny Kingad may be a 17-fight veteran who once vied for a world title under the ONE Championship banner nearly five years ago, but despite having his own fair share of success inside the cage, he remains to be a student of the game.

The Team Lakay standout will be one of the many who will keep a close eye on Thanh Le's ONE featherweight title defense against Chinese spitfire Tang Kai in the co-headliner of ONE 160, which takes place at the 12,000-seater Singapore Indoor Stadium on Friday, August 26.

"It's gonna be a striker-versus-striker battle. Thanh Le has a taekwondo background, while Tang Kai is coming from a wushu background. This will be a great battle between two great strikers," Kingad said about the matchup.

Both men have been untouchable since they made their respective promotional debuts in 2019.

Le has embarked on a five-bout winning streak, with all victories coming by way of knockout, including his world-title clinching performance at the expense of Martin Nguyen in October 2020.

As for Tang, he has compiled six consecutive wins, with four of them coming by way of vicious knockouts against the likes of Sung Jong Lee, Ryogo Takahashi, Yoon Chang Min and Kim Jae Woong.

Putting Le and Tang's credentials as lethal strikers into consideration, Kingad likes the Chinese knockout artist's chances to walk away with an intricately-crafted belt around his waist at ONE 160.

"I think Tang Kai will win. He's more complete with his punches and kicks," the Filipino flyweight contender predicted.

"He has better striking and has loaded punches and kicks. I think his footwork and kicks will be the difference."

Kingad believes that the one area Tang can capitalize on in his duel with Le is his wrestling.

The 26-year-old native of Baguio City, Philippines saw closely how the Sunkin International Fight Club representative neutralized his teammate Edward Kelly when the two collided in November 2019 to eventually cruise to a unanimous decision triumph.

"When Edward Kelly faced Tang Kai, Tang utilized his wrestling to score points and kept the pressure on him. So I wouldn't be surprised if he uses it [again]," Kingad stated.

In a previous post here on the International Business Times, Le hinted at employing his underrated ground game versus Tang to prove his well-roundedness as a competitor.

"Obviously, I'm a striker dude in the cage, but I'm a jiu-jitsu guy, too," Le shared.

"You can't fight without knowing jiu-jitsu–you're just going to get mauled. [When I started, I was] like, 'Okay, let's learn this art, this thing that people want us to do.' And then, just like I knew I would, I fell in love with it because it's a wonderful martial art."

Meanwhile, Tang is confident that he will be able to defeat Le in the same fashion he vanquished 12 of his last 16 opponents.

"He was not hit in ONE Championship before, but when I meet him, I just have to punch him, and he will be defeated. My reading [of the fight] and skills are better than his. I am better at seizing opportunities. I don't think this game will go to a decision. I think I'll KO him," Tang declared.

Although he is favoring Tang to prevail on Friday, Kingad stressed that writing the defending champion and his proven knockout power off will be an ill-advised thing to do.

"The King" mentioned that he won't be surprised if Le brings a new whole bag of tricks on fight night.

"We can't really say. In this case, whoever lands first could end the night for the other," he ended.