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Former two-division ONE world champion Martin Nguyen will face former ONE featherweight MMA world title challenger and BJJ legend Garry Tonon at ONE 165.
On January 28, inside the Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan, 'The Situ-Asian' will do the square dance with 'The Lion Killer', hoping to enter the world title picture once again.
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Tonon, before transitioning into MMA, was widely known as one of the most dangerous submission grapplers in history. A multi-time world champion in Jiu-jitsu, 'The Lion Killer' seamlessly incorporated his grappling skills into MMA.
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This was evidenced by Tonon's recent performance, a swift kneebar submission of Dagestani MMA star Shamil Gasanov at ONE Fight Night 12 last year.
Speaking to the South China Morning Post, Martin Nguyen insists that he will not make the same mistakes Gasanov made against the American jiu-jitsu icon:
“I feel like Shamil had that in the bag. All in all, he had that fight in the bag. I felt that he let ego get to him and he didn't respect Garry’s jiu-jitsu at all and, you know, as I said, Garry's one of the best and Garry showed up that night and made his turn and took his 0 away.”
Watch the full interview here:
Martin Nguyen intent on showcasing his underrated grappling skills against Garry Tonon
With 10 of his 15 pro MMA wins coming by way of knockout, it's safe to say that Martin Nguyen favors sending opponents to the negative zone over making them tap out.
However, in his fight against Garry Tonon, 'The Situ-Asian' plans to showcase his underrated grappling skills:
“So if I get the opportunity to use my jiu-jitsu, yeah, I feel like it's a bit underrated because I haven't used it. No one's seen me wrestle, they only kind of seen me like anti-grappling, but yeah we'll see. If I have to use it, I'll use it definitely.”
He may not be as credentialed a grappler as Tonon, but Nguyen has a brown belt in jiu-jitsu and has scored three wins via submission in his career. He's not going to be a novice against 'The Lion Killer' once the fight hits the ground.
ONE 165: Superlek vs. Takeru will air live on Sunday, January 28, via global pay-per-view on watch.onefc.com.
