How Featherweight Champ Thanh Le Learned to Train Smarter
The ONE title-holder has made the most out of a pandemic, injuries, family commitments, and cross-country moves
Whenever ONE Championship featherweight champion Thanh Le finally gets to fight again, it will have been much longer than he ever intended to go without competing since his spectacular 2020 victory over Martin Nguyen.
Le has faced injuries, surgeries, negotiations and, now, an unfortunate postponement of his latest announced title-defense against contender Garry Tonon (6-0). That bout was supposed to take place at ONE: X on December 5th, the biggest show in the promotion’s history, but the event has now been postponed until early in 2022 due to a record high surge in COVID-19 cases in Singapore.
It hasn’t been an easy road of late for the 36-year-old The Ultimate Fighter veteran but he says that it has at least been a productive one.
“All of it has been a blessing in disguise,” Le told us about the recent string of setbacks. “I’ve had more time to develop my skill, work on strategies. I’ve made good use of my time. It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten to fight, but it’s been a blessing in disguise.”
Outside of training, Le (12-2) and his wife have also been able to devote time to their newborn child. Which certainly has been a ray of sunshine during a challenging period in his life. Through multiple surgeries, the birth of their new child, running a family gym, and a host of other challenges, Le insists that he still managed to not ever fully stop training.
“Since my last fight I really didn’t take but a couple days off,” he says. “Whether it was just shadow fighting right after surgeries, or having to re-arrange schedules, I didn’t skip a beat.”
The champion’s consistent productivity in the gym comes down to his having learned to work his mind into training more than perhaps he did as a young kid starting out years ago. For example, Le involves a lot of film study into his training, as well as drilling that helps his mind and body connect to develop new skills, but that doesn’t beat up the joints or brain.
“Absolutely, I study a lot of film,” said Le. “Watching how [friend, training partner, and coach] Ryan Hall used to watch a ton of film, and seeing how he breaks things down, does his research and analysis, has helped me a lot, and been a big part of how I’ve spent this break from competition.”
“When you’re limited physically it can be a good time to work on things that weren’t ordinarily a high priority, but that become useful weapons for you. Also, if there’s an injury that I can’t find a way to work around doing drilling, I can at least do mental drilling by watching tape.”
Le now also records his training sessions, watches them back, and learns. This type of non-stop analysis has helped him reach career highs even at a moment when, in some ways, he serves as his own head coach on a day-to-day basis.
A few years ago Le moved to Northern Virginia to train full-time with Hall. The two helped one another immensely as training partners and respective coaches. However, when Le decided to move back to his native Louisiana at the start of his ONE run he made a big bet on himself that he could continue to improve to an elite level without being surrounded by anyone who might be able to school him in a particular area of the game.
Interestingly though, Hall’s own success running his 50/50 Martial Arts Academy with his wife, while he himself continues to fight at the highest level, helped Le believe that it was possible to take charge of his own development back home.
“I learn every day from my training partners, my brother, my coaches, but yes, you have to be and can be your own cornerman, in a sense,” Le explains. “Ryan doesn’t have a typical MMA gym. He uses training partners for what they can offer. If there’s someone there who he is overall a lot better than, it doesn’t stop him from using what they can offer him by putting himself in certain positions against them to work out of.
One way or another, Le will certainly be glad to not have cut any corners when he faces Tonon. The undefeated talent has yet to accomplish what Le has and is a relative newcomer to MMA, but the world-class Jiu-Jitsu competitor is a singularly dangerous threat on the mat with his submission skills.
Le had originally expected to face other ONE fighters next but has no objection to Tonon jumping the line a bit simply because he respects how much of a unique threat Tonon is.
“I have said in the past that Garry is probably getting the easier path to title shots but I don’t control that. He’s getting the shot because he’s so skilled. That’s the whole point of fighting. Fighting the best challenges,” Le admits.
“I thought he could be a great, phenomenal test because he’s so specialized. So, I’m definitely not protesting someone like Garry getting a shot because he’s so dangerous. So, bring that shit on.”