Garry Tonon admits losing undefeated record took weight off his shoulders

The pressure of staying undefeated can wear down anybody, even battle-tested veterans like Garry Tonon.

After leaving his mark in the grappling scene, the American BJJ maestro immediately dazzled in his foray into mixed martial arts, where he won his first six matches with relative ease.

That remarkable run earned Tonon a shot at then featherweight world champion and one of the premier knockout artists in the 155-pound division, Thanh Le. As we know by now, Tonon learned just how unforgiving MMA can be at ONE: Lights Out last year.

‘The Lion Killer’ went to his bread-and-butter right away, pulling guard and latching on to one of Le’s legs. It appeared he had a tight heel hook synced in, but the Vietnamese-American ruined his plans by dropping bombs on his unguarded face, rendering him unconscious.

A year removed from losing the “0” in his record, Tonon candidly admitted it was nice to get the load off his chest.

“I would have preferred to stay undefeated, you know, right?” he told ONE Championship.

“I think that sounds great. It's good for, you know, visibility and everything like that, but in a way, to have a loss, and then come back is a bit of relief, a little bit of a weight off your shoulders, because you can do it. It's now proven.”

Following another setback against Tye Ruotolo in a grappling match, Tonon got back in the winning column by doing what he does best against Johnny Nunez last January. The Renzo Gracie Academy and Evolve MMA standout kimura’d his way to victory at ONE Fight Night 8.

Now, he wants to earn himself another world title shot by stopping the Shamil Gasanov hype train in its tracks at ONE Fight Night 12, which will be available free for Prime Video users in North America.

The entire event will emanate from Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok live in US primetime on July 14.