Garry Tonon is excited to see how ONE Championship’s newest venture with Prime Video will unfold.
Garry Tonon is excited to see how ONE Championship's newest venture with Prime Video will unfold.
Tonon — who is preparing for his upcoming submission grappling match against Tye Ruotolo at ONE 157: Petchmorakot vs. Vienot on May 20 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium — believes the multi-year partnership to broadcast 12 live events per year is a monumental milestone for grapplers.
“[ONE is] pretty much the first major mixed-martial-arts organization to really start doing this with grappling matches. So on some level, it took them opening the door for people to actually have this opportunity. It is also going to be very much up to us as competing athletes to really make this a big show,” Tonon said.
“The Lion Killer” was one-half of ONE’s very first submission grappling bout when he submitted legendary competitor Shinya Aoki by heel hook in 2017. Now, he will face the up-and-coming athlete Ruotolo in a 10-minute submission grappling match that will showcase the skill set of two different fighters from two different generations.
“I definitely think it is a big thing for our sport, for guys to be competing in these sorts of things and have these opportunities with ONE Championship, as well as the normal stuff that they normally have the opportunity to do. I think this is going to be a game-changer for sure,” Tonon said.
Read also: Elipitua Siregar to face Robin Catalan in ONE 157 as two world titles on the line
ONE Championship is one of the top-five sports properties in the world in terms of viewership and is the world's largest martial-arts organization, according to data from Nielsen. The organization has more than 400 million fans worldwide and broadcasts in over 150 countries, bringing attention to a wide variety of martial arts — including submission grappling.
Watch ONE 157 on May 20 in ONE Super App and subscribe to ONE Championship on YouTube!
This article is published in collaboration with ONE Championship.