ONE Championship: Garry Tonon comments on Thanh Le training with Ryan Hall

Garry Tonon is deep in preparation, tapering off the final few days before flying out to Singapore for the biggest fight of his budding MMA career so far.

In less than two weeks’ time, ‘The Lion Killer’ will step into the Circle with reigning ONE featherweight world champion Thanh Le. The pair will lock horns in the main event of ONE: Lights Out, which broadcasts live from the Singapore Indoor Stadium on Friday, March 11.

Thanh Le has been working with UFC fighter and grappling veteran Ryan Hall to take his grappling game to the next level. Tonon thinks it will only benefit the Vietnamese-American world champion.

Garry Tonon told ONE Championship in a recent interview:

“Yeah, I think it's helpful. I mean, that's about as close as he's going to get. There's other people that he could train with, especially as far as grapplers that do MMA are concerned. And, you know, [he’s] roughly around my size and skill set in terms of leg locks and things like that. I find Ryan to be a relatively intelligent guy, as far as coaching is concerned, because, you know, some people could be very good, but also wouldn't be able to communicate skills. So I think Ryan's pretty smart, too. I think it's a good choice for him.”

The fight is Tonon’s first shot at an MMA world title since he made the transition from submission grappling in 2018. Subsequently, it’s also Thanh Le’s first featherweight world title defense since winning the belt from Martin Nguyen in late 2020.

Garry Tonon says Thanh Le doesn’t have enough time to prepare for grappling war

Despite working with a terrific grappler like Hall, Garry Tonon doesn’t believe Thanh Le has time to really prepare for a grappler of the caliber of ‘The Lion Killer'. Working with world-class grapplers surely helps, but Tonon says it just won’t be enough.

“I'm sure [Ryan Hall] is going to help him a lot. I think he's going to be better off than if he didn't have somebody like that in his corner helping him. But me and Ryan approach what we do very differently. It's very different but he's a smart guy. I think he'll be able to identify at least some things that I do and help prepare Thanh in that way.”

Garry Tonon and Thanh Le have been on a collision course for over a year now. But the Vietnamese-American has had to deal with a number of injuries that have kept him sidelined. Now that the fight is finally happening, it’s anybody’s game.

It may come down to who can better impose his will in the Circle.