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Garry Tonon has only lost once in nine MMA matches under the ONE banner. His ONE 165 opponent, Martin Nguyen, has certainly paid close attention to the lone blemish in ‘The Lion Killer’s record.
The largest martial arts organization is returning to Japan with a bang on Sunday, January 28, with 11 confirmed bouts at Ariake Arena. The stacked card will feature a possible world title eliminator bout at 155 pounds between two of the best in the division, Tonon and Nguyen.
While both fighters have certainly done their due diligence, Nguyen said he picked up a few pointers from Thanh Le’s sickening one-round knockout of Tonon back in ONE: Lights Out in 2022.
The former two-division world champion said in an interview with the South China Morning Post:
“It's definitely a blueprint [to beat him]. It's definitely something that exposes him, you know. He was on a seven-fight win streak, whatever it was, a six-fight win streak, got the title fight, got exposed, you know.”
‘The Situ-Asian’ added:
“Never has anyone, no one has hit him as hard as what Thanh Le did and he definitely exposed him. Still, he can definitely come back from that, as he has. So we'll see if I can, you know, the blueprint is there. So we'll see if I can pull that off.”
Watch the full interview below:
How did Thanh Le end Garry Tonon’s undefeated record?
After a blazing 6-0 start to his MMA career, Tonon challenged the division’s former kingpin Thanh Le for 26 pounds of gold.
The multi-decorated submission specialist once again relied on his bread and butter, as he dove for Le’s legs and tried finishing him with a heel hook.
However, Garry Tonon kept his face unguarded during his attempt, and the Vietnamese-American gladly dropped bombs on his head for the highlight-reel knockout.
For sure, Martin Nguyen would love to take a page from Le’s book and finish Tonon in the same manner.
ONE 165: Superlek vs. Takeru will air live on Sunday, January 28, via global pay-per-view on watch.onefc.com.
Here’s the replay of Garry Tonon vs. Thanh Le:
