Garry Tonon ranks the top pure grapplers in ONE Championship

Garry Tonon is one of the top grapplers in the world today, especially in MMA. He recognizes that some of the best in the sport have joined ONE Championship over the years.

In an interview with ONE Championship, the ONE featherweight world title challenger was asked to rank the best pure grapplers signed to the promotion. In his rankings, Tonon noted that he's looking at it from a submission grappling perspective rather than an MMA one:

“It's kind of not debatable that Gordon [Ryan] is the best, right? I mean, he's won ADCC multiple times and all kinds of super fights against ADCC veterans… obviously, I'm super biased because I'm his teammate, but even without the bias, I think I would find it hard to say anybody else.”

ADCC is one of the top grappling competitions in the world today. Tonon himself has won titles in ADCC. His teammate, Gordon Ryan, signed with the promotion in 2021 for both submission grappling and MMA, but has yet to make his debut in the Circle.

“I would say in terms of like active or most active competitors, in terms of grappling that are good, you know, Buchecha might make it to the to the number two,” he said, “Buchecha has had many accomplishments himself. He's also like a giant, you know, so that helps.”

Another multi-time ADCC winner, Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida, made his MMA debut in September 2021’s ONE: Revolution. The Brazilian lost to Ryan in the 2019 ADCC World Championships, which Tonon contributed to the reason for putting him just below his teammate.

“Somewhere between Yuri [Simoes] and Andre [Galvao] as being next depending upon how recent they've competed weighs in ( my) opinion. To me, it matters a bit. So you know, maybe we put Yuri ahead of Andre and then if I'm going to be selfish, we put me in there somewhere.”

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Submission grappling is back in ONE Championship for ONE X

Garry Tonon figured in the first-ever submission grappling match in ONE Championship against Japanese icon Shinya Aoki. At ONE X, submission grappling returns with newly-signed Brazilian jiu-jitsu phenom Danielle Kelly making her debut against Mei Yamaguchi.

Two-division world champion Reinier de Ridder has also called out Andre Galvao to a submission grappling match for the 10-year anniversary show right after his dominant world title defense at ONE: Full Circle. Galvao seems open to the idea, as he urged the promotion to “make it happen” on Instagram.

Apart from MMA, Asia's premier martial arts promotion also showcases other forms of martial arts in the form they were intended. ONE Super Series features the striking arts of Muay Thai and kickboxing. The promotion even once became a host for a WBC Super-Flyweight World Title boxing match.

With the latest additions to its roster, it looks like ONE Championship is gearing up to shine more of its spotlight on submission grappling in the near future.