Garry Tonon is an absolute grappling monster.

In recent years, many of the world’s top submission grapplers have announced intended transitions into the sport of Mixed Martial Arts. In October, Garry “The Lion Killer” Tonon signed an exclusive deal with ONE Championship, to catapult his MMA career.

This week it was announced that Tonon’s debut MMA fight will take place as part of ONE: Iron Will on March 24th. He is slated to face Filipino fighter Richard Corminal at 155 pounds in the event’s co-headliner.

Garry Tonon is a combat sports veteran, although not an MMA veteran. Still, he has trained extensively with the likes of Georges St. Pierre and Jake Shields at the legendary Renzo Gracie Academy. It will be most interesting to see how and if he chooses to apply his advanced submission game, specifically his leg-locks, into MMA. Those developments will probably become apparent later on, as Tonon would be smart to use this first fight to get comfortable in MMA competition, and rack up some experience in the standing position.

His opponent, Corminal (4-3, all wins by stoppage), is currently on a two-fight skid, and does not appear to have any standout abilities that could seriously threaten Tonon.

The real interest with this fight will be on Garry’s striking. Although he is quite skilled from the standing position in grappling, and a decent wrestler, his striking leaves much to be desired. It is extremely hard to learn entirely new combat arts as a developed athlete, and Garry’s competence on the feet will tell the audience quickly whether or not he is future championship material.

ONE: Iron Will is set to take place at the Impact Arena in Bangkok, Thailand. It will be headlined by a featherweight title fight between Bibiano Fernandes and Martin Nguyen.

For more news and updates, follow Generation Iron on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.