“Going to rip each other’s heads off” – Martin Nguyen says mutual respect with Garry Tonon will be put aside at ONE 165

Martin Nguyen has respect for his ONE 165 opponent, Garry Tonon, but that won’t stop him from attempting to tear ‘The Lion Killer’ apart come fight night.

‘The Situ-Asian’ will make his first appearance of 2024 when he heads to Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan for an important featherweight clash with submission specialist and one-time title challenger Garry Tonon. With the bout potentially serving as a title eliminator, both Nguyen and Tonon will be looking to make a statement in front of a raucous crowd in The Land of the Rising Sun.

“We're going to be trying to punch each other's head off or rip each other's bones off, you know,” Nguyen said in an interview with the South China Morning Post. “So, all in all, we respect each other. But we're definitely going to try to rip each other's heads off.”

Nguyen goes into the bout coming off a solid unanimous decision victory against Leonardo Casotti in his last outing at ONE Fight Night 7 last year.

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Martin Nguyen and Garry Tonon are two of featherweight’s fiercest finishers

Martin Nguyen vs. Garry Tonon has the makings of an early Fight of the Year contender, with ‘The Situ-Asian’ boasting an 83% finish rate while ‘The Lion Killer’ walks into ONE 165 with an incredible 88% finish rate. However, their paths to victory are often quite different.

In 12 career wins under the ONE banner for Nguyen, he has knocked out eight of his opponents, including notable names like Marat Gafurov, Eduard Folayang, and Kirill Gorobets.

On the flip side, Garry Tonon has eight victories in ONE with five coming by way of submission, including back-to-back subs in his last two appearances.

Needless to say, it’s going to be tap, snap, or nap when these two featherweight finishers step inside the Circle.

ONE 165: Superlek vs. Takeru airs live on Sunday, January 28, and will be available via global pay-per-view at watch.onefc.com.