“I built up a lot of confidence” – Garry Tonon says he’s no longer stubborn with submission holds after KO loss to Thanh Le 

American grappling icon turned elite mixed martial artist ‘The Lion Killer’ Garry Tonon says he learned a painful yet incredibly valuable lesson in his loss to ONE interim featherweight MMA world champion Thanh Le.

Tonon met Le at ONE: Lights Out back in March of 2022 for his first-ever shot at ONE Championship gold. Unfortunately for the 32-year-old, his Vietnamese-American counterpart used his leg lock attempt to rain down some heavy ground and pound to claim the finish.

Tonon says he now knows better than to over-commit on a potential submission from that position.

Speaking to Sportskeeda MMA in a recent interview, Tonon detailed exactly what he learned from that fight.

‘The Lion Killer’ stated:

“I had previous fights where I was able to get a hold of a leg and go for an ashi garami and finish. I had built up a lot of confidence in that.”

He added:

“I'm not going to say I'm not confident at all anymore but it's something that I'm really going to try to save in my back pocket [in the future]. So if I end up in bottom position again, more than likely you're going to see me scramble back up the top position as quickly as I can instead of really focusing on trying to finish him from that position. I think that's what changes the entire fight.”

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Garry Tonon cements his status as the No.1-ranked featherweight MMA contender with victory over Martin Nguyen

‘The Lion Killer’ Garry Tonon is looking at another crack at the world title, and he may have just earned it by taking out a former ONE world champion.

Tonon made quick work of former ONE featherweight and lightweight MMA world champion ‘The Situ-Asian’ Martin Nguyen, submitting the Vietnamese-Australian veteran via rear-naked choke at ONE 165: Superlek vs. Takeru. The event took place at the Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan last Sunday, January 28th.

If you missed any of the action or want to relive an epic night in ONE Championship history, the ONE 165 replay can be watched on demand via watch.onefc.com.