Garry Tonon will be making an MMA debut in a week. The grappling ace is set to make a cage appearance against Richard “Notorious” Corminal next Saturday, 24 March, at ONE: IRON WILL in Bangkok, Thailand.
Ahead of the debut Tonon talked a little bit about his start in grappling with ONE FC:
“…my mom would not let me do football, or anything like that. She thought it was too dangerous, which as it turns out, was one of the best things that could have ever happened to me.”
“She did not really know anything about wrestling, and when my dad was around, he did not really know anything either, because he was into baseball. So I got the first idea about grappling from wrestling.”
However Tonon would soon be introduced to bjj by one of his wrestling friends:
“I was doing wrestling at the time, but had never even heard of this sport (BJJ) — until one of my friends, who was doing wrestling at age 14, started to do jiu-jitsu, and he was telling me about it,” Tonon recollects.
“At first, I did not even believe him. He was like, ‘It’s kind of like wrestling, except we try to choke each other.’ And I’m like, ‘That’s crazy! That’s not real!’ I thought it was professional wrestling. I figured nobody would let kids do that to each other.
“So he invited me to a competition. I went, and I was like, ‘This is so cool.’ After that, he started showing me videos and all sorts of things, and I became more immersed in that culture.”
And soon enough the whole thing ended up changing his life:
“Once [martial arts] became my life, it was all I wanted to do. I did not want to do other stuff. That was where I wanted to direct my career, to teach and train jiu-jitsu,” Tonon says.
“My goal was to train, get good, and open a school. Once she found out that was my plan, she was not happy about it. That’s just not the traditional, ‘parent-approved’ plan, to just open a business and see what happens. It did not sit well with her.
“I want you to beat him to a pulp, and cover me in his blood in the stands.” said by My mother, Laurel Fitts. Wow mom, that was a big jump from, “I’ll never be able watch if you fight.” #thatescalatedquickly #mamabear #ilovemymama @ONEChampionship #corminalvstonon #ironwill
— Garry Tonon (@Garry_Tonon) March 14, 2018
Garry Tonon will make his exciting transition from competitive grappling to ONE’s Global Rule Set on 24 March! #IronWill #Bangkok #MartialArts pic.twitter.com/G6QPRUk7xA
— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) March 18, 2018
