“They do not carry much weight” - Ilya Freymanov wasn’t intimidated by Martin Nguyen’s world titles

ONE newcomer and featherweight marvel Ilya Freymanov made a huge statement on his ONE debut by knocking out former two-division ONE world champion Martin 'The Situ-Asian' Nguyen.

The Russian KO artist made short work of Nguyen on the main card of ONE on Prime Video 2. He made it resoundingly clear that he'd arrived.

Taking on a former two-division world champion like Nguyen and coming out like a world-beater after is no easy feat. In an interview with ONE Championship, Ilya Freymanov spoke about how Nguyen's intimidating credentials affected his performance:

"I have a lot of respect for Martin and his titles. I was happy to share the cage with him, but titles mean nothing to me. They do not carry much weight. What matters during the fight is how you are prepared right now. Talking about your titles is a delightful pastime for sport veterans and retirees."

There's an undeniably strong truth to Freymanov's words. In professional fighting, you're largely as good as your latest performance.

World titles and accomplishments in the past don't mean much if you're not training and working just as hard as you were on day one. This is not to say that Nguyen wasn't prepared at all. This speaks to Freymanov's excellent mentality towards the fight game.

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Ilya Freymanov vs. Martin Nguyen play-by-play

Early on, both sluggers tried to measure each other's distance, with Freymanov landing the harder strikes. Seemingly being threatened by Freymanov's distance striking, Nguyen tried to neutralize the Russian's reach advantage by engaging in a clinch battle against the cage.

It didn't take long, however, for Freymanov to slip back into his striking range and blast Nguyen with significant strikes again. Midway into the round, the Russian KO artist hit 'The Situ-Asian' with a right head kick followed by a knee strike as Nguyen level-changed for a takedown.

Moments later, Freymanov starched Nguyen with a nifty right cross after a solid knee to the face. The right hand immediately dropped the Vietnamese-Australian and Freymanov swarmed. On the ground, Freymanov ended the bout with brutal knees to Nguyen's prone head. The referee stopped the bout at 3:33 of the first round.

With a KO win like that, Ilya Freymanov's immediate future is looking bright in ONE Championship. He took on perhaps the toughest challenge a debuting fighter could possibly get and smashed it like no one else could. We're excited to see what this hard-hitting Russian striker will do next.