Martin Nguyen reveals the one thing he had trouble with against Leonardo Casotti

Former two-division world champion Martin Nguyen swung back to the win column after beating Brazilian Leonardo Casotti by unanimous decision in their featured fight at ONE Fight Night 7 on February 24 in Bangkok.

'The Situ-Asian' pretty much had his way over his late-replacement opponent, although he admitted to having trouble initially adjusting to the eye pokes he got throughout the contest.

In a post-fight interview following his win, Martin Nguyen said:

“I've kind of seen everything to be honest. The main thing was I just kept my guard up. It took me a while. I was expecting something else, and he threw something. But I think the main thing that hurt me was the eye poke. His fingers went straight to my eye. I was just like, oh man, this stings. But once I wiped the tears out, I was like, let's get it.

At ONE Fight Night 7, Martin Nguyen was deliberate in his approach as he was up against Casotti, who was preparing to compete at ONE Friday Fights 6 before taking the opportunity of a lifetime on just a couple of day’s notice. He picked his spots and capitalized on every opportunity he got for his vaunted counters to much success.

The Brazilian fighter had his moments in the fight, but the veteran Vietnamese-Australian warrior made sure it did not get out of hand and that he was on top of things all the way to the end.

Casotti was the third opponent for 'The Situ-Asian' after original foe Shamil Gasanov of Russia and initial replacement Razhab Shaydullaev of Krygyzstan pulled out in succession a week ahead of fight night.

Martin Nguyen says featherweight is ripe for the taking and anyone can get it

Former ONE featherweight world champion Martin Nguyen said his division has currently taken on an interesting landscape, with the field wide open and anybody among the top fighters able to emerge as champion.

During the media day for ONE Fight Night 7 on Prime Video last month, 'The Situ-Asian' shared that the featherweight class is stacked with quality fighters and the possible scenarios are brimming:

“Yeah, it's full of champions. That doesn't look good because who's his next contender? It was meant to be me if I had won my last bout. Obviously, I haven't now. I think Ilya Freymanov is calling out Thanh Le. Thanh wants a rematch. Garry wants a title shot against Tang Kai. Garry just won his last bout against a non-contender. So this division's all over the place when it comes to title ges for the belt.”

Apart from being the former featherweight king, Martin Nguyen also held ONE lightweight gold at one point, the first fighter in the promotion’s history to become a two-division world champion.