Martin Nguyen ends ONE Championship bantamweight bid

Two-division champion Martin Nguyen is not planning to be a three-division champ anytime soon

After a couple of tries, current Featherweight and Lightweight world champion Martin Nguyen is ending his bid at the ONE Championship Bantamweight division.

The Situ-Asian suffered back-to-back losses in title fights attempting to snag said championship, first losing via split decision to current champion Bibiano Fernandes at ONE: Iron Will in Bangkok back in March, then lost to Kevin Belingon for the interim title a few weeks ago during ONE: Reign of Kings.

Nguyen felt naive thinking that the weight cut to make bantamweight was not going to be an issue. He says that "it played out in the fight," adding "I did not feel tired – I could have gone another five rounds, but with my toe, it just came to a point where my reactions were off, and Kevin’s speed was impeccable. I could not adjust, and everything just came into play."

He adds, "It was a good learning curve, and a good experience overall, but I will stick to my roots where my body feels stronger and more comfortable."

Now that he has shifted his focus back at defending his two belts, there are a plethora of challengers looking to take their chance at plucking either title out of his grasp.

The lightweight division has former champions Shinya Aoki and Eduard Folayang, with solid contenders Ev Ting, Timofey Nastyukhin, and Honorio Banario.

Aoki, in particular, has intrigued Nguyen as a potential opponent for the lightweight title, which he has yet to defend since defeating Folayang back in November to become the champion. Martin notes, "he has taken out his last two opponents devastatingly with first-round finishes. He is not riding decisions like Eduard and Ev. Yeah, they put up good fights, and they have fought good opponents, but Shinya has fought good opponents, too, and he put them away in the first round."

Aoki needed just 5:31 to take care of his last two opponents, forcing Rasul Yakhyaev to tap after just over three minutes in Singapore, then taking just over a couple of minutes to defeat Shannon Wiratchai in Manila.

As for the other lightweight contenders, Nguyen thinks that Nastyukhin seems to be one who is not as busy as one wants to be in seeking a title shot, while Banario has Amir Khan in his sights in Shanghai. If Honorio beats Amir, he adds, "we will see if he jumps ahead."

With regards to the featherweight division, of which he has had one title defense, a split decision victory over Christian Lee back in May in Singapore, Martin sees former champion Narantungalag Jadambaa as a viable challenger, acknowledging "Tungaa" as "the ex-king," "a legend," and as someone "who has been in this sport forever." The Mongolian is 4-1 in his last five matches, with back-to-back victories over Kazuki Tokudome and Edward Kelly.

In addition, a title rematch against Marat Gafurov could potentially be in the cards, which sets up a trilogy between the two fighters, as they have split their previous two meetings. Nguyen though believes that "The Cobra" should have at least two more fights before getting a title rematch.

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