Martin Nguyen describes his "emotional roller coaster" during ONE Fight Night 7

Former ONE double champion Martin Nguyen picked up a win at ONE Fight Night 7 on Prime Video, but the fight week wasn’t plain sailing.

‘The Situ-Asian’ dedicated himself completely to his training camp, making sacrifices in order to pick up a much-needed win to rebuild some momentum in his career.

On top of that, Nguyen had several opponent changes leading up to the fight. After originally being scheduled to face Shamil Gasanov, the fight fell off the card due to his opponent suffering an infection from an injury.

His replacement opponent, undefeated prospect Razhabali Shaydullaev, also pulled out of the fight. With that, Leonardo Casotti stepped in, giving Nguyen the opportunity to stay on the card.

After having his hand raised inside the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium, Martin Nguyen reflected on the build-up to February 24 in an interview with the South China Morning Post.

He said:

“Yeah definitely it felt good. I say it has been an emotional roller coaster of a month. My daughter being sick, being away the whole camp for the whole 12 weeks, coming to fight week, already lost an opponent, got another opponent, lost him, got a third opponent, and you know I got two days to adjust and didn't really know anything about him.”

‘The Situ-Asian’ added:

“I had to solely rely on my brother Aung and Kian to kinda cram everything in and basically work off straight experience.”

Watch the full interview below:

Nguyen defeated Leonardo Casotti via unanimous decision with a controlled performance that made all of the sacrifices worth it.

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Martin Nguyen fighting Leonardo Casotti without knowing anything about him "was dangerous"

With the ups and downs during the build-up to ONE Fight Night 7 on Prime Video, Martin Nguyen found himself in a difficult position.

Determined to stay on the card and pick up a win by any means necessary, ‘The Situ-Asian’ found himself facing an opponent on late notice that he knew very little about.

Several changes to who he would be standing across the circle from on February 24 made his preparations extremely difficult. However, Nguyen was still fully focused on getting back in the win column after losing three of his previous four fights.

Brazil’s Leonardo Casotti eventually filled the space of Nguyen’s opponent, a competitor that the former double champion knew nearly nothing about.

In an interview with SCMP MMA, Martin Nguyen said:

“I know every fighter is different, but there are some traits that fighters do that you kind of get used to and can expect... But not knowing anything about Leonardo was dangerous and I kinda had to just make it a smart fight, a winnable fight, but also I tried my best to finish him.”

The week paid off for Nguyen as he got the win that he was so focused on leaving the Lumpinee Stadium with. He also praised his opponent, saying:

“He’s a tough guy, man. A tough guy.”