Garry Tonon just landed a crazy kneebar finish in his fight against rising ONE Championship star Shamil Gasanov at ONE Fight Night 12 on July 14th, 2023. Tonon was looking at an uphill battle when he was booked against Gasanov, as his opponent was undefeated in 13 professional MMA fights prior to this. Regardless, Tonon is a skilled MMA fighter in his own right and even challenged for the promotion’s featherweight title recently. Although he was unsuccessful in his first attempt at gold, that was still the only loss of his MMA career so far and he quickly bounced back with a submission win in his next fight. This fight against Gasanov was Tonon’s opportunity to make a claim that he was ready for a second attempt at the belt.
Tonon came out strong and shot for a takedown early but Gasanov stuffed it and drove him into the mat, landing several brutal knees to the head. Tonon eventually worked his way back to standing and hit a sit-through to expose Gasanov’s back, jumping onto it and securing the position. Gasanov stayed standing and worked patiently to remove Tonon’s hooks, taking a few minutes before he eventually managed to turn and face him. The pair wrestled in the clinch and Tonon managed to secure double-underhooks, registering a few unsuccessful takedown attempts before the first round ended.
Tonon came out for the second round by firing off some powerful kicks but Gasanov countered with a quick double-leg takedown. Gasanov controlled Tonon for a moment from full guard before stepping over to half-guard and immediately raining down some hard punches. Tonon tried to wrestle up on a single-leg but ate a knee to the head for his troubles and was thrown back to the ground. He managed to work his way back up to his feet but Gasanov transitioned to double-underhooks and started to work to his opponent’s back. Garry Tonon rolled through for a kneebar and took a second to adjust the position before bridging in and forcing Gasanov to tap.
There were moments where it looked as though Tonon was in trouble and he definitely took some damage in the fight, but in the end his trademark unpredictable grappling style paid off in a huge way. The kneebar that Garry Tonon secured earned him one of the Performance of the Night bonuses at ONE Fight Night 12, but it wasn’t the only display of elite grappling at the event. Tammi Musumeci also won a unanimous decision over Amanda ‘Tubby’ Alequin in a superb match between two of the best female grapplers that ONE Championship have on their roster.
ONE Fight Night 12 Full Results
Superlek Kiatmuu9 defeats Tagir Khalilov via TKO – Punches (Round 2, 1:42)
Garry Tonon defeats Shamil Gasanov via Submission – Kneebar (Round 2, 2:26)
Amir Aliakbari defeats Dustin Joynson via TKO – Submission to Punches (Round 1, 1:48)
Yuya Wakamatsu defeats Xie Wei via TKO – Punches (Round 1, 2:03)
Akbar Abdullaev defeats Aaron Canarte via TKO – Spinning Back Kick and Punches (Round 1, 0:41)
Phetjeeja Lukjaoporongtom defeats Lara Fernandez via TKO – Punches (Round 1, 0:26)
Banma Duoji defeats Walter Goncalves via Decision – Unanimous (Round 3, 5:00)
Tammi Musumeci defeats Amanda ‘Tubby’ Alequin via Decision – Unanimous (Round 1, 10:00)
Bogdan Shumarov defeats Constantin Rusu via TKO – Head Kick (Round 3, 1:33)
The full ONE Fight Night 12 event replay, including Garry Tonon and his kneebar submission win against Shamil Gasanov, has been uploaded to the official ONE Championship YouTube channel:
