Watch Garry Tonon's MMA Debut at One Championship Is here, interesting stand-up! Really impressed with what occurred!
He has hands! I also keep forgetting One FC are like 9hrs ahead and keep spoiling stuff to myself lol Too used to UFC etc being 8hrs behind us Brits.
Spoiler: Highly entertaining wow if he keeps improving his striking then he looks like he is going to be seriously successful. That was a hugely entertaining from start to finish and the clinch and groundwork were really dominant. I'd say he will have to be mindful of protecting that lead leg in his more bladed stance and be aware of over using the croach to defend strikes as if he gets timed on that it will be extremely dangerous for him. But basically he looked great. Gotta love that celebratory elbow drop and handle bar moustache too haha
A really nice bit from Danaher's Facebook. Spoiler: Danaher's last word A word of thanks: being a small part of Garry Tonon’s preparation for his winning MMA debut was a great coaching experience and to see him successfully execute many of the central themes and concepts of an entirely new sport in such a short preparation time was truly impressive. I wanted to thank the many people who played key roles in this young mans incredible development. First, to Mr Tonon himself. He trained three times a day seven days a week, through injuries, physical pain and early frustration and never missed a workout. Due to the fact that I have to teach a high volume of private classes to make a living, the only daily time slot for MMA sparring was immediately after his second grappling class. I did not want him to neglect his main strength, so he had to spar MMA immediately after two hours of grappling - he did it every day without complaint. His work ethic amazes me. Thanks also to Squad seniors Eddie Cummings and Gordon Ryan, along with all the kohai (juniors) who created the framework of the squad that helped build his brand and a training room that could promote development. Thanks so much to the unsung heroes of the squad - the regulars of RGA in NYC headquarters who come in every day while holding full time jobs and made a room that builds champions - you fellows are the rock upon which this whole enterprise is built. Thanks to Doug Pelinkovic, Mike Jaramillo, Gene Dunne, Brian Glick and Claude Levy, senior students whom I often discuss ideas and concepts of MMA and who provide such a fine sounding board for my developmental ideas. Thanks to Tom DeBlass for being such an outstanding mentor to Mr Tonon all these years. Thanks so much to Ryan Rizco, Jake Shields, Matthew Tesla, Neiman Gracie, Garry St-Leger and Mehrdad for being the sparring partners who took Garry from total novice to confident debutant in just four months. Thanks to Jamie Crowder and Joe Sampieri of RGA Muay Thai for all your insight and help. Thanks so much to Georges St-Pierre and Joe Rogan for extremely valuable input on the subtleties of distance, movement and timing that played a pivotal role in the outcome. Thanks to Mr Tonon’s family who did such an amazing job raising this young man and fully support him through thick and thin. Thanks to my sensei, Renzo Gracie, who gives us a space to train and freedom to develop so the athletes can progress towards their dreams. Thank you to One FC for believing in Mr Tonon’s potential and giving him a chance to showcase his hard work on the international stage. And thanks so much to you, my dear readers, who follow our exploits, tolerate our foibles and share our vision of grappling and martial arts in ways that motivate us and makes us try even harder. Bless you all from Bangkok.
He looked very good, will be good to see him go against better opponent's but as debuts go it was impressive. Renzo Gracie through his students and fight team has probably had a bigger impact on mma and grappling than anyone I can think of he was by far the most open of the Gracie's and seems to be the best coach to
A paragraph or two would be nice, but he's definitely in another league then the majority of MMA & BJJ coaches.
I wonder if Matt Tesla is the "mattt" that used to frequent this parish? He often spoke of training at Renzo's and what a room of killers it was. Shame he jumped the MAP ship.
Thought Tonon looked great. Good stance switching, in and out movement, looking for angles, mixing up strikes and kicks, good ground and pound. But...think he's relying too much on being athletic and having good reflexes. That'll get him pretty far of course but I think someone with feints and guile will have him stuttering and reacting to nothing.
Maybe, but IIRC I remember mattt saying he'd only competed once? And only trained at lunchtimes? But that might not be correct.... Talking of training in a room full of killers, Eddie Wolverine: I'm Always Injured, Just a Matter Of Severity Assuming this isn't misreported, at what point does training intensity impact training longevity?
Ugh. I like Eddie, but (assuming accurate reporting like you said) articles like that do my head in. They perpetuate the stupid idea that being constantly sore and/or injured is a sign of good training; no, it's a sign of misbalanced training (if injury is due to chronic overload, which in my experience is typically the case with martial artists). Swallow your pride, stop training, heal, and fix the errors in your exercise programming.
I'd say right around the point you can say about yourself "I'm always injured and in pain". You're probably going too far at that point. I've become a bit of a skeptic about the martial arts idea of "training for life" or "for health" of late. I'm not sure where that balance point is or even if it can be reliably achieved with normal people? So many dan grades and veterans in multiple arts with bad backs (Rickson and Eddie Bravo for example), bad knees, bad shoulders, hip replacements, etc. I've heard it joked that each dan grade in Judo is awarded per knee operation. I think in many ways you can either train for high achievement OR longevity but not both. If you train to be the best you may achieve that aim but at great cost to your body and longevity. If you train for longevity you'll never be the best because your training won't be intense enough.
I think you can train for health but you need to pick your art and make it appropriate for your age and as you say understand you might never reach the top of your sport and be OK with that. Martial artists as VZ said are notorious for training too hard, too often and not having correct recovery methods in use, this is especially true in the combat sports where their isn't much money to be made grappling, low to mid level MMA, for example their isn't the money to invest and attract good coaches to program your workload and make sure your aren't over training I have lost count of the number of people I know competing in bjj who ramp up rounds and intensity right up to competition day, any normal sane sports coach would have you tapering before a comp not increasing
The only other sport I have been involved with with world class competitors who have had great longevity was powerlifting but they rested completely 3 days a week at least, they did other activities such as aerobic work, played racket sports to work their joints through different motions, and those that really lasted made good use of protective gear to assist them and listened to their body and trained to how they felt not how a coach shouted at them to train.
