5 of Martin Nguyen's best knockouts so far

#2. Martin Nguyen’s flying knee vs. Narantungalag Jadambaa

Despite his dominance in the featherweight division and conquering the lightweight division, Martin Nguyen could not replicate his success at bantamweight. After failing to claim a world title in a third weight class and relinquishing the lightweight strap, Martin Nguyen reset his sights on defending the featherweight crown.

First on the deck was former ONE featherweight world champion, Narantungalag Jadambaa. The pair squared off at ONE: Roots of Honor in Manila back in April 2019, almost a year since Martin Nguyen’s last appearance in the circle.

Like Nguyen, ‘Tungaa’ has shown an ability to be dangerous both on the feet and on the ground, which led to a tentative start to their match. While being cautious, both fighters were able to throw some scary-looking punches against each other, but Nguyen also targeted his opponent with some leg kicks in an attempt to slow down Jadambaa.

It looked to be paying off as the Mongolian slipped after the first minute of the fourth round, visibly affected by Nguyen’s kicks to his lead leg. Smelling blood in the water, Nguyen stalked his opponent and hit a sweeping right leg kick that took Jadambaa’s foot off the ground.

As Jadambaa dealt with the pain and tried to regain his balance by jumping back, he dropped his guard for a second, which Nguyen took advantage of. For a brief moment, you could see Jadambaa’s face when he realized that he messed up, but it was quickly covered by a flying Martin Nguyen, who launched his knee to the face of his rival.

The blow instantly sent Jadambaa to the canvas as the referee quickly went in between the two fighters to end the fight. While it was not an immediate walk-off, Nguyen would not need to throw any more strikes to ensure victory.

Catch highlights of this mind-blowing knockout finish below:

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#1. Kirill Gorobets learns Martin Nguyen still got it

In October 2020, Martin Nguyen finally met his match, when Vietnamese-American knockout artist Thanh Le ended his reign with a third-round TKO. When he returned on September 2021, he met a rising contender in Kim Jae Woong hoping to get back on the winning track. Unfortunately, it led to further disappointment as he the Australian suffered another loss, this time via a first-round TKO .

Just when it looked like Martin Nguyen’s best days were behind him, another young contender arrived to challenge him; Ukraine’s Kirill Gorobets. The Swedish fighter also had a flair for finishing fights, with five knockouts and three submission victories on his professional MMA record.

Looking to make a statement on his ONE Championship debut, Gorobets met Nguyen in March 2022’s ONE: Lights Out hoping for a spectacular finish.

Early on, Nguyen had trouble closing the distance because of the promotional newcomer’s glaring reach advantage and active feet. However, it was Gorobets who first went for a takedown, which he quickly realized was a bad idea, as he almost got trapped in a guillotine just over a minute into the match.

Gorobets employed much of the same tactics in the second round, making use of the circle to stay away from the dangerous strikes of ‘The Situ-Asian’. Towards the end of the second round, fatigue looked to be setting in for Gorobets, and Nguyen caught him in several bad spots.

While he survived the onslaught to reach the third and final round, the Ukrainian fighter looked much more gassed than Nguyen, who still had a spring in his step. Nguyen then threw punches, kicks, knees - everything but the kitchen sink - until the referee finally put an end to the beatdown.

Watch highlights of Nguyen’s impressive win below:

Clearly, Martin Nguyen is far from done. And he’ll be looking to prove it again when he takes on Ilya Freymanov at ONE on Prime Video 2 on US primetime on September 30.