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Former two-division ONE world champion Martin Nguyen sees his ONE 165 opponent, Garry Tonon, as a necessary stepping stone to once again challenging for featherweight gold.
Bouncing back with a big win over Leonardo Casotti in his last appearance, Martin Nguyen will look to secure a potential title opportunity when he returns to the Circle this Sunday, January 28, for a high-stakes clash with ‘The Lion Killer.’ Nguyen has won two of his last three, earning him a fight with the division’s top-ranked contender, Garry Tonon.
‘The Situ-Asian’ spoke with ONE Championship ahead of their highly anticipated showdown at Ariake Arena in Tokyo. He suggested that he and Tonon’s fight was inevitable given their current position in one of the promotion’s most loaded divisions:
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“He's in front of me. Him and I are coming off winning streaks and he is the next step forward. Well, we both are the next step forward in terms of getting that title shot and so it's just a fight that had to happen, you know, it's been almost a year in the making.”
Garry Tonon is determined to punch his ticket to another title opportunity against Martin Nguyen
Since making the jump from Brazilian jiu-jitsu to MMA in 2018, Garry Tonon has looked nothing short of spectacular. He has amassed an 8-1 record, with his only loss coming against then-featherweight world champion Thanh Le.
Since then, he has landed back-to-back submission victories against Johnny Nunez and Shamil Gasanov, setting the stage for a battle with the ONE Championship legend.
With both fighters boasting finish rates over 80 percent, this will surely be a blink-and-you'll-miss-it type of contest. Martin Nguyen, one of the promotion’s most exciting knockout artists, faces a submission specialist with seven finishes in eight wins, Garry Tonon.
Who comes out on top and punches their ticket title to a future featherweight title fight?
ONE 165 airs live on Sunday, January 28, via global pay-per-view on watch.onefc.com.
