Garry Tonon talks decision to compete in grappling over MMA in next outing
Coming off a first-round loss by way of strikes in his venture to win the ONE Championship featherweight title, submission artist Garry Tonon is looking to get back on the winning path.
The 30-year-old “Lion Killer” was defeated by champion Thanh Le at ONE: Lights Out in March. Tonon will now return to his grappling roots when he meets Tye Ruotolo at ONE: ONE 157 on May 20.
The contest is slated for one, 12-minute round and will allow Tonon to stay active without taking the damage that could come from mixed martial arts competition.
Tonon spoke with ONE Championship officials ahead of next week’s matchup to discuss his decision to test himself against Ruotolo who is making his promotional debut.
“Well, yeah, so I’ve never been opposed to doing grappling matches, but like I said, I’m trying to focus on MMA, so when it interferes with MMA is when I have an issue, taking a match, or whatever the case may be,” Tonon said. “And in this case, because I got KO-d, I have a certain period of time where I’m not supposed to be competing in striking contests. It still kind of makes sense. I didn’t actually think about it too much. Actually, we probably were just about talking about the idea that I could have been taking a grappling match, and then they sent the offer over. Well really, as an organization, they didn’t really speak to me about it specifically. They just kind of sent the bout offer. I mean, Chatri maybe kind of mentioned the idea of competing in grappling again, like before my last fight. But we didn’t have any serious conversations about it. So yeah, they just kind of sent me a bout offer actually, ironically, the original bout offer was for Kade. And then they were like, oh, yeah, just kidding, we messed up, it’s for Tye.”
Main Card For ONE 157: Petchmorakot vs. Vienot
- Petchmorakot Petchyindee vs. Jimmy Vienot (ONE Featherweight Muay Thai World Title)
- Prajanchai PK.Saenchai vs. Joseph Lasiri (ONE Strawweight Muay Thai World Title)
- Rodtang Jitmuangnon vs. Jacob Smith (Flyweight Muay Thai Grand Prix quarterfinal)
- Garry Tonon vs. Tye Ruotolo (lightweight – submission grappling)
- Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida vs. Hugo Cunha (mixed martial arts – heavyweight)
- Shinya Aoki vs. Kade Ruotolo (lightweight – submission grappling)
- Jonathan Haggerty vs. Walter Goncalves (Flyweight Muay Thai Grand Prix quarterfinal)
Lead Card For ONE 157: Petchmorakot vs. Vienot
- Rade Opacic vs. Guto Inocente (kickboxing – heavyweight)
- Asha Roka vs. Alyse Anderson (mixed martial arts – women’s atomweight)
- Superlek Kiatmoo9 vs. Taiki Naito (Flyweight Muay Thai Grand Prix quarterfinal)
- Savvas Michael vs. Amir Naseri (Flyweight Muay Thai Grand Prix quarterfinal)
- Davit Kiria vs. Mohammed Boutasaa (kickboxing – featherweight)
- Nat “Wondergirl” Jaroonsak vs. Zeba Bano (mixed martial arts – women’s strawweight)
- Panpayak Jitmuangnon vs. Josue Cruz (Flyweight Muay Thai Grand Prix alternate bout)
- Sherzod Kabutov vs. Denis Puric (Flyweight Muay Thai Grand Prix alternate bout)
- Elipitua Siregar vs. Robin Catalan (mixed martial arts – strawweight)
