5 Things You Might Not Know About Martin Nguyen

A climb back to relevance has begun for Martin Nguyen.

The One Championship mainstay will do battle with the once-beaten Ilya Freymanov in a ONE on Prime Video 2 featherweight showcase on Friday at Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang, Singapore. Nguyen enters the cage with an 11-5 record inside the Chatri Sityodtong-fronted promotion. He last competed at ONE “Lights Out,” where he put away Kirill Gorobets with punches in the second round of their March 11 clash.

As Nguyen approaches his showdown with Freymanov at 155 pounds, here are five things you might not know about him:

1. His was a roundabout journey.

Born to Vietnamese parents in Sydney, Nguyen was once a promising rugby player. He did not start his formal mixed martial arts training until he was 21 years old and did so not with an eye on competition but in an effort to lose weight.

2. First impressions were phenomenal.

Nguyen made his professional MMA debut on July 28, 2012 in Nowra, Australia, where he submitted Richard Kemp-Hay with a rear-naked choke in the third round of their confrontation under the Southern Fight Promotions banner. He went on two finish each of his first four opponents, including Rocky Batolbatol in his first assignment with One Championship.

3. Proper steps to ensure his readiness were taken.

“The Situ-Asian” operates out of the Kill Cliff Fight Club, formerly Sanford MMA, in Deerfield Beach, Florida. There, he trains under Henri Hooft and three-time NCAA wrestling champion Greg Jones, all while sharing gym space with a number of world-class stablemates, from Michael Chandler and Gilbert Burns to Robbie Lawler, Vicente Luque and Jason Jackson.

4. He has already left his fingerprints on history.

Nguyen became a two-division title in One Championship, where he struck gold at 155 and 170 pounds. He captured the organization’s featherweight crown on Aug. 18, 2017, when he punched out Marat Gafurov in the second round of their ONE “Quest for Greatness” encounter. The Sydney native then laid claim to the lightweight championship at ONE “Legends of the World,” where he knocked out Eduard Folayang in the second round of their Nov. 10, 2017 pairing.

5. Consistency and stability are selling points.

The 33-year-old Nguyen has appeared in only three promotions: Southern Fight Promotions, Brace For War and One Championship. More importantly, he has suffered back-to-back defeats only once in his career, suffering a third-round technical knockout loss to Thanh Le at ONE “Inside the Matrix” in October 2020 before being knocked out by Jae Woong Kim in the second round at ONE “Revolution” in September 2021.