Thanh Le has just become the tenth person in the 50/50 Jiu-Jitsu affiliation headed up by Ryan Hall to be promoted to black belt in BJJ. This shouldn’t come as much surprise really, considering the fact that Le is already a ONE Championship World Champion and owns an impressive 13-2 professional MMA career. He has actually come within inches of a UFC contract on more than one occasion in the past; making it to the second round of 22nd season of The Ultimate Fighter in 2015, the same season that was ultimately won by his coach Hall.
As Le went out in the elimination round after winning his preliminary fight, he did not compete on the TUF 22 Finale fight card and continued plying his trade on the regional circuit. Then in 2017, Le also won his first and only fight on Dana White’s Contender Series but was not offered a contract to the fight for the UFC despite winning his fight by knockout in just a little under two minutes. Le really came into his own when he made the move to ONE Championship and he hasn’t lost a fight since.
Le continued his amazing 100% finishing rate in his first three fights for the promotion and earned himself a title shot against the Featherweight world champion Martin Nguyen. He ended up knocking out the reigning champion in the third round and claiming the title for himself, before being matched up against elite grappler Garry Tonon for his first title-defence. Despite Le’s dominance at ONE Championship until that point, many fans were sold on Tonon being the favourite to win and become the new champion.
Once the two men met in the cage however, the fight was over and done with in less than a minute as Le managed to land savage ground and pound as soon as the fight went to the ground. Not only does Thanh Le remain the ONE Championship Featherweight World Champion and he continues to maintain his 100% finishing rate in MMA, but he is also a BJJ black belt under Ryan Hall.
Ryan Hall announced the news that Thanh Le had just been promoted to black belt in BJJ in a post to his official Instagram account:
