ONE Championship: Garry Tonon hails the artfulness of Thanh Le’s striking

Garry Tonon knows he’s going to be up against an elite striker in Thanh Le when they go head-to-head at ONE: Lights Out later tonight.

In the latest edition of ONE Vlog, Tonon was asked what he thought of Le as a fighter.

Garry Tonon said:

“I think he’s an assassin as opposed to a murderer. An assassin does a lot of planning ahead of time and requires precision – you want to be able to go in and out without getting caught. There’s a certain art to being an assassin, despite the fact that both of their bouts is to kill, in a sense. There’s a lot more artfulness. I think Thanh Le is very artful in his striking.”

Tonon could be right. Thanh Le has certainly elevated his striking to an art form. His fluid motion and precision are a sight to behold in a fight or even during training. The incredible power behind the beauty of his strikes has helped him collect 11 knockouts in 12 professional MMA wins.

Thanh Le thinks Garry Tonon can help him improve his grappling

Thanh Le believes that the underlying goal of mixed martial arts is to become a complete fighter and he thinks Garry Tonon can help him achieve it.

While he is confident in his striking, Le thinks that there’s still work to be done for his grappling skills, and he wants to work with Tonon after their fight.

“I’ll put my striking against anybody on MMA on the planet. So if you had the almighty of fighting that are 10/10 in all those categories – 10/10 grappler, 10/10 striker – that’s the way it works, and that’s what we’re all striving to get to. That’s why I’m working on grappling everyday, I’m working more on my grappling than my striking because it needs it. I’m fighting this man because he’s the toughest test I could see now, so I need that to happen.” said Le.

Competing against Garry Tonon, who will be looking to take one of his limbs off, will help Le see how a grappler uses all his knowledge in a fight setting. Later though, he would like to pick his opponent's brain about the thought process that went into it.

“When that’s said and done, let’s go get some training done. These guys are good for a reason. Maybe I can help them with some striking, maybe they can help me with some grappling, but that’s later. Now, I’ll try to kill you on Friday, you try to kill me, we’ll figure it out afterward.”

Watch the full vlog here: