Grappling sensation Garry Tonon is one of the top names in professional Jiu-Jitsu, and he has announced his plans to transition to MMA in 2016.

He made the announcement on his Facebook page and also said that he would be doing it at 145 lbs.

It’s official, I will be attempting to make feather weight for nogi worlds this year. I plan to have an MMA fight within a year and I will likely be fighting 145 so this will be a good test to see if i can handle the cut. Also After competing against Imanari at 150 pounds day before weigh in and feeling very good at that weight I believe I can make the 149 same day weigh in required to preform well at feather weight. Don’t worry lightweights I’ll still be there for you at Nogi Pans! So sad after pans no doughnuts or cheeseburgers for a month

Tonon’s coach Tom DeBlass’ thoughts on his student’s MMA debut on the Just Roll Podcast.
(Transcription via Victor Rodriguez)

“Let’s see how athletic he is in his standup. Let’s see how coordinated he is with his boxing. Let’s see how his wrestling translates from, you know, Jiu-Jitsu to MMA. Nowadays you have to be an athlete in MMA. The days of Jeremy Horn being successful in MMA are no longer. You have to be an athlete, OK? Garry is an athlete but, coordination, all these things make a huge, huge difference. The thing is, in MMA, I don’t know what the hell it is, but you’ll get some guys that aren’t good at Jiu-Jitsu at all – they just find a way to slip out of submissions, and it just gets tough. So, my advice to Garry is get your standup world-class, you know? Get your standup very, very good. Or, be like Demian Maia, know what I mean? Like, flashy stuff in MMA becomes dangerous at a high level, you know? Garry, I think is going maul to through a lot of people at a local level. When you get to a higher level, and you have a style that leaves yourself open, it could be dangerous, you know what I mean? And the thing is, what are we gonna do if you take someone down, you take their back, you almost choke them, and they turn into you, end up in your guard, they hammerfist you five times and they stand up and you gotta stand up all over again and do it all over again? Then, where’s your mind at? You know what I mean? So my advice to them is, Garry, Gordon, these guys is, this is not Jiu-Jitsu. There’s nothing similar about MMA and Jiu-Jitsu whatsoever. It’s a different animal, it’s a different beast, you know?”

No opponent has been announced yet but Tonon will have a year at least to improve his striking.