Skip to main content

Garry Tonon expects title shot with win over Martin Nguyen at ONE 165: 'Makes the most sense'

Garry Tonon feels he’s fighting for more than just a win or a loss on his record this Sunday.

The standout grappler thinks his upcoming fight against Martin Nguyen is an unofficial No. 1 contender bout in the featherweight division. Tonon (8-1) and Nguyen (15-6) are scheduled to fight at ONE Championship 165, which goes down at Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan. If victorious, Tonon sees himself getting another shot at the ONE Championship title.

“I don’t really see too many options for ONE Championship even if they didn’t want that for whatever reason, but I don’t know why (they wouldn’t),” Tonon told MMA Junkie. “I feel like it’s going to be the thing that makes the most sense, assuming I win this fight.

“Thanh Le and Tang Kai are going to fight each other. The only thing that can happen – maybe, I guess – I mean, I would’ve won three fights in a row so it would seem kind of weird to me, but the only thing that I suppose you can argue is that Thanh could lose to Tang Kai and then maybe they can ask me to fight Thanh instead of Tang Kai, but then who fights Tang Kai?”

Tonon is currently on a two-fight winning streak since losing to Thanh Le in a ONE Championship featherweight title fight. He has not been explicitly told by the organization that he’s up next if he were to get his hand raised this weekend. However, he just doesn’t see anyone better suited for the job if he defeats Nguyen.

The 32-year-old knows Nguyen is dangerous, but he plans on making a statement by submitting him.

“I don’t think he’s ever faced someone like me before,” Tonon explained. “Maybe that’s a bit of an ego-driven statement, but he has dealt with a ton of types of different challenges of elite level competition, and he’s done exceptionally well. He’s risen to the occasion. … I like my chances, of course. I don’t think he has the grappling skills to deal with the things I’m going to throw at him. The way I see this fight going is the way I see every fight going. We start by punching each other in the face, we clinch up, and I eventually put this guy down, lay some punishment and submit him. That’s the way I see this fight going.”



from MMA Junkie https://ift.tt/7slhFD5
via IFTTT

Labels

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Burmese fighter: Joshua Van details pioneering journey to plant Myanmar's flag on UFC turf

Joshua Van remembers asking his mother why they had to live in Houston. Why couldn’t they just go back home where things were familiar? He was 12 years old at the time, and Van wanted to go back to where he lived the first decade of his life, in Myanmar. Life wasn’t easy for an undersized pre-teen who spoke little English and was picked on during school for both of those attributes. Looking back, the math adds up that he’d become the first Burmese fighter to compete in the UFC. “I was a small kid,” Van recently told MMA Junkie. “From where I come from, you get picked on. It’s kind of like I fight everyday, and I got to the point where I enjoyed fighting. I watched clips on street fights and how to win street fights. I tried it in my next fight and things like that. That’s what got me into my career.” Van grew up one of five siblings in Myanmar, a country ridden with military and political conflict . When things increasingly worsened, Van’s parents decided to move to Malaysia. Van...
Read more

Video: Oli Thompson lands devastating first-round knockout punch on Aleksei Oleinik in Russia

Aleksei Oleinik returned to action for the first time since his UFC exit, but things did not go in his favor. In the main event of REN TV Fight Club at Dynamo Volleyball Arena in Moscow, Russia, Oleinik (60-17-1 MMA) faced fellow UFC veteran Oli Thompson in a heavyweight bout. The result was a violent finish that left Oleinik staring up at the lights. Thompson (21-16 MMA) unleashed a crushing right hand that sent Oleinik crashing to the canvas with 35 seconds remaining in the opening round. Check out video of the finish below (via Twitter ): Oli Thompson destroys Alexey Oleynik with a massive right hand in the first round pic.twitter.com/AdWy25dQxR — caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) May 26, 2023 Thompson, 43, returned to the win column for the first time since 2020, snapping a four-fight losing skid. His last victory was also a first-round stoppage; a 23-second knockout of Szymon Bajor at Fight Exclusive Night 28 on June 13, 2020. Oleinik, 45, competed in his final UFC bout in Octo...
Read more

Logan Paul, KSI to fight (separately) as part of Misfits Boxing 'The Prime Card'

Logan Paul and KSI will top an upcoming Misfits Boxing card entitled “The Prime Card,” they announced Friday on social media . The event takes place Oct. 14 at AO Arena in Manchester, England and streams on DAZN pay-per-view. Opponents for the two influencers-turned-boxers have not yet been announced. It is unclear if the bouts will be professional or exhibition. Paul, 28, has not competed in a professional boxing match since he fought and lost to  KSI in November 2019. The bout was a rematch of an August 2018 amateur fight which ended in a draw. In June 2021, Paul competed in an exhibition bout against Floyd Mayweather and went all eight rounds in a non-scored bout. While he’s been relatively inactive in boxing, Paul has thrilled fans with his athleticism in intermittent appearances in pro wrestling bouts for WWE. KSI, 30, has competed four times since the pro bout against Paul. All four of those matches were exhibitions. KSI won three of them inside the distance, while a f...
Read more