Garry Tonon (8-1) is making big moves in ONE Championship’s featherweight mixed martial arts division, but the American grappling superstar hasn’t forgotten his roots.
He scored his second submission win in a row at ONE Fight Night 12 this past Friday, July 14, handing rampaging Russian star Shamil Gasanov his first professional loss in the process inside Bangkok, Thailand’s Lumpinee Boxing Stadium.
While Tonon may find himself challenging for the ONE featherweight world title again in the not-too-distant future, he reflects fondly on what his promotional debut against Shinya Aoki in ONE’s first-ever submission grappling match back in 2017 did for the sport’s presence in the promotion.
“It’s awesome, man. (I was in) one of the first grappling matches that ONE ever put on against Shinya Aoki. Back then, it was not something that was a regular staple in their fight cards. Even though it was really exciting to be on a world stage, and there’s a lot of people watching, it didn’t feel like they showed up for that. It felt like that was just mixed into the show that they had shown up for,” Tonon recalls.
“We’re reaching a different level now, where there are people showing up to be entertained by grappling matches. That’s the branding that ONE is building right now around grappling, and that’s really cool.”
Fast forward to 2023, and ONE has two submission grappling world champions, with cards regularly featuring ground-based battles.
That trend will continue at ONE Fight Night 13 next month, as ONE flyweight submission grappling world champion Mikey Musumeci is set to defend his crown against strawweight MMA king Jarred Brooks in one of the evening’s main events.
With the popularity of submission grappling growing, Tonon believes the anonymous life of a multiple-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion is a thing of the past, and he praises ONE for that fact.
“Now, (when) I meet people, and I would say 25 percent of the time when somebody says, ‘Oh, hey, are you Gary Tonon,’ I go, ‘Oh, man, where do you train?’ They’re like, ‘Oh no, I don’t. I just like to follow the sport,’” he said.
“That used to never happen. It was always, ‘Oh, you know, I train at such and such place. I do this martial art.’ Now, it’s just like any other sport where people that don’t even participate are interested in watching. They think it’s exciting and cool. And ONE Championship is doing a great job bringing that out and showing that to people and helping us gather fans for grappling.”
