ONE Championship: Martin Nguyen climbs out of ‘dark hole’ to put featherweight division on notice

Former featherweight champ puts year and a half of self-doubt behind him with calm and calculated win over Kirill Gorobets in Singapore

‘I’m making a second title run and every fight I have from here on is gonna be the most professional Martin Nguyen everyone’s ever seen,’ he says

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Martin Nguyen celebrates his victory over Kirill Gorobets.

Published: 7:52pm, 12 Mar 2022

For Martin Nguyen, Friday night’s third-round TKO in Singapore was more than just a victory.

It was a sweet release from nearly a year and a half of crippling self-doubt and loss of motivation.

After stopping the game – but ultimately outmatched – Ukrainian Kirill Gorobets, the former featherweight champion’s hand was raised in ONE Championship for the first time since August 2019 in the Philippines.

“It’s been three years since I’ve spoken to you guys after a fight – I was always on the short straw end of the fights, so I’m happy and I’m grateful to be here,” Nguyen (20-5) said during a virtual media scrum which included the Post after his win.

That night in Manila, “The Situ-Asian” looked on top of the world, racking up his third title defence with a dominant TKO of Koyomi Matsushima. Since claiming the belt from Marat Gafurov in August 2017, he had also won and vacated ONE’s lightweight title and came close to snatching the bantamweight throne and becoming the promotion’s first triple champ.

But he chose to focus on building his legacy at featherweight, where a new crop of challengers were emerging in Thanh Le and Garry Tonon.

“I gotta take [Le] out and when Garry is ready we’ll take him out, and then we’ll move on to another division,” Nguyen told the Post in April 2020, before the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc on his – and the world’s – plans.