Garry Tonon Talks 'Craziest Experience' Of MMA Debut At ONE: Iron Will
Garry Tonon Talks 'Craziest Experience' Of MMA Debut At ONE: Iron Will
Brazilian jiu-jitsu legend Garry Tonon made his MMA debut Saturday at ONE Championship: Iron Will. Here's what he thought.
By Wombat Jones/Ramen Choke Hold for FloCombat
Brazilian jiu-jitsu wizard Garry Tonon made his MMA debut Saturday at ONE Championship: Iron Will, and the result was brutal.
The grappling ace scored a second-round TKO in his debut inside the cage, and the Internet was buzzin' about it.
"That was the craziest experience I've ever had in my entire life by like a factor of 10," Tonon told Ramen Choke Hold for FloCombat.
The TKO was perhaps surprising, as many felt Tonon would win via submission, but to him, it was all according to plan.
"I just had it in my head that I wanted to try things that I hadn't done yet, like, I've done the whole grappling thing," Tonon said. "Not to say that you're not going to see submissions from me in the future—you definitely will, but I really wanted to start developing that cage confidence.
"You even saw it in, like, the first couple blows. I've never been hit like that. When he made contact with the overhand right... He was hitting me with bad intentions, he threw that one punch, and I was like, 'Oh! OK. That's what getting punched in the face with a four-ounce glove is like.'"
While the result was clean and tidy, Tonon already identified things he could have improved in the fight.
"One of the worst things I think I did in there was just zero lateral movement," Tonon said. "Everything was forward and back. That was pretty terrible. A lot of the kicks were ill set up. But, yeah. Overall, super excited. I'm happy with the experience."
Now, the question becomes: When will Tonon return? At 1-0 with a world of potential ahead of him, fans are itching for that sophomore appearance, and Tonon told Wombat Jones onsite when we can expect that scrap to happen.
"I'd like to fight as many times as I possibly can," Tonon said. "As long as I'm healthy—I was just talking to some of the organizers of the event outside, and they said, you know, 'You can fight as early as two months from now potentially.' So, if that's the case, awesome, I'd love to do that. Let me check myself out and see if I have any injuries. As long as nothing's going to prevent me from doing that, that's kind of down the road what I'd like to see. On average, I would say look for me in another three months just to be safe."
Watch the full interview embedded below.
Then catch Wombat's pre-fight interview with Tonon as a double dose of goodness: