Garry Tonon is just days away from the biggest fight of his MMA career and he’ll be facing that challenge alone as John Danaher will not be able to corner him on December 4th due to Coronavirus restrictions in Singapore. Tonon will be fighting Koyomi Matsushima, who recently challenged Martin Nguyen for the ONE FC Featherweight World Championship. As Danaher explained in a post on his official Instagram account, Matsushima brings an unusual blend of top-tier Karate and Wrestling to the division and will represent a difficult challenge for the elite BJJ athlete to overcome.
This will be the sixth professional fight in Tonon’s fledgeling MMA career and he’s finished all five of his previous opponents. His last fight was a little over eighteen months ago against Pancrase veteran Yoshiki Nakahara and lasted less than a minute before he got the tap with a Heelhook. Tonon hasn’t been completely inactive during that time period however, as he won a bronze medal at the 2019 ADCC World Championships just a few months later and has remained undefeated over three grappling matches since that tournament.
In the same time since Tonon’s last experience in the ONE FC cage, Matsushima has fought three times including his title shot against Martin Nguyen. With over three times the number of professional fights, Matsushima certainly has the edge in MMA experience, but Tonon’s elite Jiu-Jitsu is a great equalizer. Even without John Danaher in his corner, Garry Tonon should be comfortable in the knowledge that his grappling is leagues above anything that Matsushima can pull out of the bag.
