“That shows an ability to step out of their comfort zone” - Garry Tonon gives Thanh Le mad props for improving his BJJ

Garry Tonon is one of the best talkers in ONE Championship and has no problems pinpointing his opponent's weaknesses, yet he’s also quick in praising the opposition at the drop of a dime.

One such incident was when he looked back at how former tormentor Thanh Le turned from one of the most devastating strikers to a smooth-rolling submission artist.

In an interview with Sportskeeda MMA, the BJJ legend gave mad props to Le’s incredible first-round heel hook finish of Ilya Freymanov for the ONE interim featherweight MMA world title.

Garry Tonon said:

“To go after a submission when your main thing is to hit people and knock people out, I mean, props to him man. That shows an ability to step out of their comfort zone that really feels like they're confident in their skills would be able to do. So yeah it's going to be it'll be an interesting fight.”

Le, a former ONE featherweight MMA world champion, is a terrifying knockout artist. He used that power when he sent Tonon to the shadow realm in March 2022.

Tonon, a multi-time BJJ world champion, tried to trap Le in their ONE: Lights Out meeting, but all he got were several punches to the face that rendered him unconscious on the ground.

After the disappointing loss, Tonon gradually bounced back to the world title picture when he submitted Johnny Nunez, Shamil Gasanov, and former ONE featherweight and lightweight world champion Martin Nguyen successively.

As for Le, the Vietnamese-American star will face ONE featherweight MMA world champion Tang Kai in a world title unification match this year.

Watch Garry Tonon's interview below:

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Garry Tonon impressed with Thanh Le’s submission of Ilya Freymanov

A product of John Danaher’s innovative teachings, Garry Tonon is considered one of the best submission artists in terms of leg lock-based offense. So when he saw Thanh Le rip Ilya Freymanov’s heel at ONE Fight Night 15, ‘The Lion Killer’ was undoubtedly impressed with his old foe.

Tonon was coming off a rear-naked choke finish of Martin Nguyen at ONE 165 this past weekend when he talked about Le’s slick submission win.

He said:

“Look at [Thanh Le’s] last win against Ilya where he pulled off a [heel hook]. It's one thing to use some jiu-jitsu to pass somebody's guard and take somebody's back, whatever the case may be but you know leg leg locks are pretty elaborate techniques. This is a tough thing to do to finish. To be fair maybe Ilya isn't very defensively sound with leg locks but nonetheless, to pull it out in a fight scenario you know when you had just gotten taken down [is impressive].”