“He did whatever he had to” – Martin Nguyen says Tang Kai "took the right route" to gain featherweight world title

Former ONE world champion Martin Nguyen commends reigning featherweight titleholder Tang Kai for doing everything he needed to make it to the top of the mountain.

‘The Situ-Asian’ knows a thing or two about what it takes to become a champion under the ONE Championship banner, after all.

Nguyen has done it not once but twice, claiming both the featherweight and lightweight titles in his iconic run. He’ll look to take one giant step closer to another shot at ONE gold on Sunday, Jan. 28, when he meets the division’s top-ranked contender, Garry Tonon.

Ahead of his highly anticipated return to the Circle at ONE 165, Nguyen showed some appreciation for Tang Kai’s incredible run that has brought him to the top of one of ONE’s most competitive weight classes. Speaking to the South China Morning Post, Nguyen said:

“He’s definitely on a tear, and all due respect, I mean he is the champion. So it's hard enough to get there and he's took the right route to get to the title. So he did whatever he had to do to get that title.”

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Martin Nguyen vs. Garry Tonon could deliver the featherweight division’s next title challenger

Martin Nguyen’s scrap with ‘The Lion Killer’ could very well be a featherweight title eliminator, meaning the winner may move on to challenge the winner of ONE 166’s mega-sized rematch between defending champ Tang Kai and former featherweight king Thanh Le.

Tang earned an impressive unanimous decision victory over Le at ONE 160, shutting down the heavy-hitters offense for 25 minutes en route to claiming his first 26 pounds of ONE Championship gold.

Le earned the opportunity to run it back with a fantastic first-round submission against Ilya Freymanov in October.

Would you like to see the winner of Martin Nguyen vs. Garry Tonon move on to challenge the winner of Tang Kai vs. Thanh Le?

ONE 165 airs live on Sunday, Jan. 28, via global pay-per-view at watch.onefc.com.