Martin Nguyen reveals difficulties of facing a new opponent on short notice - “Nothing will get through”

Vietnamese-Austrailian star Martin Nguyen revealed the difficulties he had in facing an unknown opponent in his latest outing at ONE Fight Night 7 on Prime Video.

Going into his fight, Nguyen experienced two opponent changes before ultimately facing Brazilian featherweight Leonardo Casotti on two days’ notice.

He was initially slated to fight Dagestani wrestler ‘The Cobra’ Shamil Gasanov on February 24 but was later replaced by Rezhab Shadullaev when Gasanov withdrew from action due to an infection. Shadullaev later pulled out of the billing, leaving Nguyen without a fight until Casotti stepped up to the challenge.

It’s an understatement to say that the last few months leading up to fight week haven't been easy on Nguyen. Leaving his family so that he could train on the other side of the world with Aung La N Sang in Florida to then fight an unknown opponent at the last minute posed a whole new set of challenges.

At the post-fight interviews with SCMP MMA, the Kill Cliff FC representative said:

“So other than that, I did not know. This is what it’s like studying fighters and all that. You can start to read that stuff you know. Man, Aung’s been drilling my whole week, the whole week we’ve been here. It’s strong guard, strong shoot, nothing will get through. I know some punches got through, but yeah didn’t faze [me] too much though.”

Martin Nguyen emerged victorious after three rounds of battle, outstriking the Brazilian power-hitter to get himself back into the winning column.

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Fans react to Martin Nguyen’s much-needed win at ONE Fight Night 7

Martin Nguyen regained his confidence back after winning his latest bout in dominant fashion at ONE Fight Night 7. Relieved to have broken away from a recent rough patch, the former double-world champion reminded fans that he’s still in the running for ONE Championship glory.

Before 2020, Nguyen was one of the most dominant lightweight and featherweight world champions under the promotion. He beat some of the biggest names before losing his featherweight belt to Thanh Le back in October 2020.

Though criticisms were thrown his way, Nguyen kept a firm resolve throughout the ordeal. The Situ-Asian’ put those doubts to rest after getting his hand raised on February 24.

Here’s how some of the fans reacted to Nguyen’s much-needed victory at ONE Fight Night 7 below:

“This fight and Saputra/Kingad have been the best fights of the night for me, props to Casotti for stepping in on such short notice and still performing so well! 👏🔥”

“This was a good fight! Way to go Martin Nguyen!”

“Fight of the night, absolute beast 🔥.”