Martin Nguyen - Respect

[sssleeper]

This dude has had 5 title fights in under 12 months across 3 weight classes (bw, fw, lw). Just insane.

Currently holding ONE's LW and FW titles in the process.

Between the end of March and end of July this year he fought 75min of battle.

He's accomplished a lot for a guy that turned pro 6 years ago and has only been properly committed as a fulltime fighter the last 3 years.

Just wanted to point out that crazy schedule and give him props.

 

[Setsuna]

Agreed. Whatever you think about his last few fights or One's push to make him a three division champ, the guy is carrying the type of schedule a multiple division champ should be. Hopefully One forgets about making him a three division champ and he goes back to defending the lw and fw titles with some consistency.

It does make you wonder about Aung La vs. Vera. You know One is desperate to have the 3-div champion so they must have tried to put that fight together. Which one turned it down?

 

[sssleeper]

Yrah, at the end of the day he has been grinding away and putting it on the line.

Not sure about Vera / La I can't see either guy turning down the fight. Vera hasn't fought in forever though. I don't see that fight going well for La if it were to happen. Maybe he can make WW?

 

[Bobby Boulders]

Yrah, at the end of the day he has been grinding away and putting it on the line.

Not sure about Vera / La I can't see either guy turning down the fight. Vera hasn't fought in forever though. I don't see that fight going well for La if it were to happen. Maybe he can make WW?

My first thought was to agree with you, Vera would win. But Vera is 40. Remembering that, I think it's a much closer fight. And La is also hitting his stride, is with a great team, and has momentum. Then tack on that he is fighting every couple of months and Vega hasn't fought in almost two years and averaged just over one fight per year between 09-16. I think La pulls it off.

 

[eseseses681]

Agreed. Whatever you think about his last few fights or One's push to make him a three division champ, the guy is carrying the type of schedule a multiple division champ should be. Hopefully One forgets about making him a three division champ and he goes back to defending the lw and fw titles with some consistency.

It does make you wonder about Aung La vs. Vera. You know One is desperate to have the 3-div champion so they must have tried to put that fight together. Which one turned it down?

Where the fuck are you getting this "ONE is desperate for a three-division champion" shit? Nguyen wanted to be a three-division champion so they catered to him because he's one of their stars. That's "desperation"?
Mcgregor wanted to be a three-division champion, the UFC tried make it happen, it's the same thing. Cody Garbrandt's brought up being a three-divisional champion; if he beats Dillashaw, you think the UFC's not gonna try to help him? That doesn't mean they're begging Cormier to drop down to middleweight.
It's not like they're trying to get as many three-divisional champions as they can get, they saw an opportunity and tried to do it. What upside is there to Aung La giving up 30 pounds so he can hold the heavyweight belt, losing Vera as a champion in the process? Has Aung even brought that up? If he brought it up because he wanted to test himself or something it would be one thing, but from what I can tell he hasn't, and he has a tough challenge lined up next in Ataides and you think he's looking passed that? He'd have to be if he has his sights set on the heavyweight belt.
If the fight were at light-heavyweight and Vera wanted to be a two-divisional champion it would make sense; they're still champions in their best divisions, and it'd be a big fight, and whoever loses you could just say it was "out of their best weight-class". Trying to make Aung a three-divisional champ just to say "we have a three-divisional champion" doesn't. The risk of him getting knocked out by a 250-pound Vera headkick isn't worth it.

 

[Setsuna]

Point taken that desperate was too strong of a word. However, you're fooling yourself if you don't think the reason One cycled back to Nguyen at BW so quickly was to grab headlines and for a petty 'first 3-div champion ever' claim. They tried it once, he lost, they should have moved on with the divisions at that point.

Re: Aung La-Vera, pure conjecture on my part and I'm not trying to sell it as anything else. Just seems like a move they would make - not like there's anything else at all happening over 185 and they did test the waters avbit with Aunv La against Ngalani. Big difference between taking a fight with Vera though and I feel the same way that there's nof enough upside for either party to take that fight.

 

[Jezza Art]

Can anyone who actually knows anything about fighting tell me if Martin would be competitive with elite UFC fighters in his weight class?

 

[strongstylekarate]

What's with this 3 division thing, IMO a fighter focused on his own division or two.

3 division champ and defending the belt can be a headache.

 

[Deleted member 363827]

Can anyone who actually knows anything about fighting tell me if Martin would be competitive with elite UFC fighters in his weight class?

The key word in your question is "competitive", so I would say Nguyen is not top 10 material in any of the weight class he fought in (145, 155, 170).