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Former two-division ONE world champion Martin Nguyen has certainly made a name for himself using the atomic missiles he tucks in his fists.
‘The Situ-Asian’ will figure in a classic ‘striker vs. grappler’ showdown at ONE 165 on January 28 against decorated BJJ specialist Garry Tonon at Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan.
Since he’s primarily known for laying people out in striking exchanges, Nguyen believes fans often forget that he’s a well-rounded MMA fighter who’s also capable of handling business on the ground.
His rarely-seen grappling acumen will certainly be tested in less than two weeks since he’ll be sharing the Circle with a notorious submission hunter.
Five of ‘The Lion Killer’s eight career wins have come by submission, including that nasty knee bar he pulled off against Shamil Gasanov at ONE Fight Night 12 last year.
Martin Nguyen, for one, says he’ll be wary of Tonon’s grappling acumen. Still, the Vietnamese-Australian is confident that he can hold his own once the fight reaches the ground.
The no.3 ranked featherweight MMA contender said in an interview with The South China Morning Post:
“So if I get the opportunity to use my jiu-jitsu, yeah, I feel like it's a bit underrated because I haven't used it. No one's seen me wrestle, they only kind of seen me like anti-grappling, but yeah we'll see. If I have to use it, I'll use it definitely.”
Here’s the full interview:
Martin Nguyen says he’ll use Thanh Le’s blueprint to beat Garry Tonon
The last time Garry Tonon fought a world-class striker, he ended up without his consciousness intact.
Tonon challenged Thanh Le for the featherweight MMA crown at ONE: Lights Out in 2022 and got handed his first career loss.
Martin Nguyen, for his part, said he paid close attention to how Le used relentless ground and pound to negate Tonon’s fearsome submission holds.
He told SCMP MMA:
“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.”
ONE 165: Superlek vs. Takeru will air live on Sunday, January 28, via global pay-per-view on watch.onefc.com.
