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Martin Nguyen is confident he has the tools to defeat submission wizard Garry Tonon at ONE 165.
‘The Situ-Asian’was once a ONE two-division MMA world champion and seen as nearly unbeatable. Between 2020 and 2022, Nguyen went through a rough patch, losing three of four fights, leaving fans wondering how much gas was left in the tank.
At ONE Fight Night 7, Nguyen silenced the doubters by securing a dominant unanimous decision win against Leonardo Casotti. As a result, he’s been matched up against Tonon for a potential number one featherweight MMA contender fight at ONE 165 at Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan.
During an interview with ONE, Nguyen shut down the idea of his upcoming fight being a striker vs. grappler matchup, saying:
“Realistically, they're putting it out there as a classic grappler versus striker match. I'm just seeing it as two mixed martial artists going in there and, you know, evolving from what we're known as. And you know, drilling it out and go and see who the better man is. You know, I'm obviously preparing for the best traits that he exposes.”
Martin Nguyen claims Garry Tonon is standing in his way of a ONE featherweight MMA title shot
On March 1, ONE featherweight MMA world champion Tang Kai plans to regain undisputed status by taking out interim world titleholder Thanh Le in a rematch. Following the world title matchup at ONE 166: Qatar, the winner between Tang and Le could be matched up against Martin Nguyen or Garry Tonon.
During an interview with Sportskeeda MMA, Nguyen had this to say about Tonon potentially being in his way of earning a world title shot:
“Right now, my plan is to fight the best guys in order to move up in ranking to deserve that title shot. And we both are standing in each other's way.”
Before worrying about what’s next, Martin Nguyen is focused on taking out Garry Tonon at ONE 165. Nguyen looked impressive in his latest win but Tonon is riding momentum after securing back-to-back submission wins against Johnny Nunez and Shamil Gasanov.
Check out the official ONE 165 fight card below:
