Garry Tonon learned from Thanh Le fight why he doesn’t like diving for the legs

Garry Tonon knows that his Brazilian jiu-jitsu will always save him when he’s in a pinch. But, Tonon did admit that he initially hesitated during his match-ending sequence against Shamil Gasanov.

The American BJJ legend forced Gasanov to tap to a nasty-looking knee bar in their featherweight showdown at ONE Fight Night 12 this past weekend at the iconic Lumpinee Boxing Stadium.

In his post-fight interview, Tonon said the move he used against Gasanov was eerily similar to the one he used during his fight against Thanh Le back in 2022.

Tonon tried to sweep Le’s feet but all he did was get on the receiving end of a vicious ground-and-pound assault.

Nevertheless, ‘The Lion Killer’ got the job done against Gasanov in Bangkok.

“It's not usually my number one thing that I like to do because as we found out when I fought you know, Thanh Le and you know, I had that knockout loss, you know, sometimes intentionally going to bottom position doesn't work out the best and haven't made but, you know, the double treble roll into the legs is pretty safe.

"You almost always get to a situation where the person at least has to run away from you so you have space to get up.”

Tonon’s match against Le was his first crack at the ONE featherweight world title but he ended up losing via knockout to the then-world champion.

After that disappointing loss, Tonon bounced back with two highlight reel submission wins over Johnny Nunez and Gasanov this year.

Tonon is now at an impressive 8-1 in his mixed martial arts career, the entirety of which was fought in ONE Championship.

Watch Tonon's entire interview below: [Comments from 1:30 onwards]