Garry Tonon fought for the ONE FC Featherweight world title against Thanh Le and suffered his first professional loss as a result, getting knocked out in the first round. Tonon is one of the most exciting grapplers of the modern era and he has managed to use that talent to propel his MMA career to the highest heights over at ONE FC, all while developing a respectable striking game along the way. Tonon managed to put together six professional wins over a period of three years that culminated in a convincing decision win over Koyomi Matsushima that earned him his opportunity to fight Le.
Tonon was incredibly confident during the build-up to his very first title-shot and Le was equally assured of his victory. Tonon’s gameplan was obvious from the outset of the fight as he came out aggressively and started landing some solid strikes, most notably throwing a few high kicks early on. Le attempted to counter one of these kicks with a punch but Tonon seemed prepared for this reaction and he immediately dropped to the ground to start attacking one of Le’s legs.
Le had obviously spent a fair amount of his training camp defending leg attacks given the fact that this is something Tonon is known for. He immediately got to work undoing Tonon’s leg entanglement and throwing heavy punches down at him at every available opportunity. One of these shots connected hard and Tonon was clearly shaken by it, giving Le the perfect opening to start raining down blows and force the referee to end the fight.
The full ONE: Lights Out event replay, including Garry Tonon getting knocked out by Thanh Le in the ONE FC Featherweight title-fight, is available to watch on the official ONE FC YouTube Channel, click here to watch or see below: