Garry Tonon gives props to “damn tough guy” Shamil Gasanov after ONE Fight Night 12 war

‘The Lion Killer’ Garry Tonon is more than willing to give credit where credit is due following his second-round submission against Russian grappler Shamil Gasanov.

Gasanov walked into their ONE Fight Night 12 scrap with a spotless 13-0 record, but by the time Garry Tonon was done with him, ‘The Cobra’ no longer had an ‘O’ next to his 13. ‘The Lion Killer’ delivered another brilliant submission finish, catching Gasanov in a vicious knee bar that had him screaming in pain and frantically tapping out.

Despite Tonon’s impressive performance against Shamil Gasanov, ‘The Lion Killer’ acknowledged that his Russian foe was a formidable opponent, telling the South China Morning Post:

“Undefeated guy double digits, anybody that's able to get double digits undefeated, I don't care how you know, quote unquote patted somebody might say somebody's record is, [it’s] a tough thing to do is a crazy sport. All kinds of crazy things can happen.”

He continued:

“You get hit by anything at any moment. Anybody can get knocked out. So, you know, I think anybody I don't care where they are. They're double digits. Undefeated. That's a damn tough guy. They're doing something right. And he's doing a lot of things right, you know. So I think that was really impressive.”

Garry Tonon is hoping his impressive finish against Shamil Gasanov will be enough to put him back in line for a featherweight world title opportunity once reigning champion Tang Kai settles some business with the former king of the division, Thanh Le.

If you missed any of the action or just want to relive an epic night in ONE Championship history, the ONE Fight Night 12 replay can be watched anytime on demand via Amazon Prime Video in North America.