Martin Nguyen has vengeance on his mind

Former two-division world champion Martin Nguyen does not like to lose, which is why he makes it a point to redeem himself every time he stumbles.

'The Situ-Asian' did exactly that when defeated Brazilian Leonardo Casotti at ONE Fight Night 7 on Prime Video on February 24 in Bangkok by unanimous decision. It was a bounce-back win for the Vietnamese-Australian fighter, who fell to Russian Ilya Freymanov back in September.

Martin Nguyen shared this “come back with a vengeance” mindset he has in the post-fight interview:

“Look, any win does a lot for me by any means necessary. My losses, I will have to avenge them, sooner or later. It does suck to lose.”

Martin Nguyen was deliberate in his victory over Casotti, picking his spots and exploiting every opening he got for his attacks. It proved to be an effective approach as he kept his opponent at bay all the way to the end.

'The Situ-Asian' is one of the most instrumental fighters in ONE Championship and once simultaneously held the ONE featherweight and lightweight world titles. He is now focusing on the featherweight division, where he is currently the No. 4 contender, and is seeking to earn a title shot.

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

In his most recent fight, Vietnamese-Australian fighter Martin Nguyen had to go through two opponent changes before settling for Brazilian Leonardo Casotti.

The former two-division world champion went on to defeat Casotti by unanimous decision at ONE Fight Night 7 on Prime Video on February 24, but admitted it was tough since he took on an opponent on just a couple of days’ notice.

In an interview with SCMP MMA following his victory, Martin Nguyen shared that good thing he and his team came in prepared for any eventuality come fight night.

He 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.”

Watch the interview below:

Martin Nguyen initially was penciled to fight Russian wrestler Shamil Gasanov at ONE Fight Night 7. That was until a week before the fight, when he pulled out because of an “infection” he got from training.

It was then announced that Kyrgyz prospect Rezhab Shadullaev would come in as a replacement. But he too ended up as a no-go.

Casotti eventually stepped in to make the scheduled fight happen at the iconic Lumpinee Boxing Stadium.