Garry Tonon reveals how he knew he had Shamil Gasanov beat after locking in kneebar

American fighter Garry Tonon knew he had Shamil Gasanov beat even before the Russian tapped out in their recent showdown.

‘The Lion Killer’ sent ‘The Cobra’ into submission by kneebar in the second round of their featherweight mixed martial arts clash at ONE Fight Night 12 on Prime Video on July 14 in Bangkok.

In coming up with the win, the 31-year-old New Jersey native pulled out stuff from his deep bag of grappling tricks, which was punctuated by an impressively executed attack on the leg that led to a kneebar finish midway into the second round.

Garry Tonon said that when he had Shamil Gasanov on a bind, he knew there was simply no escaping from it. He shared this during the post-event interview session for ONE Fight Night 12:

“You know that everything was extended. And it's kind of, kind of funny, we had a little moment. I don't know if everybody caught it on camera, but you know, I had everything fully extended and he decided to start defending by like, trying to elbow me in the hamstring.”

Watch the interview session below:

The victory over Shamil Gasanov was the second straight impressive submission victory of Garry Tonon. It was in follow-up to his first-round finish of fellow American Johnny Nunez by kimura in January.

The back-to-back wins padded Garry Tonon’s push for another shot at the featherweight world title after his first attempt at it in March last year fell short with a knockout loss to then-world champion Thanh Le.

Tonon is the No. 2-ranked contender in the division, which is currently ruled by Tang Kai of China.

Replay of ONE Fight Night 12 is available for free to Prime Video subscribers in North America.