Garry Tonon "The Lion Killer"

Garry Lee Tonon was born on September 12, 1991, in New Jersey. He began training at the Renzo Gracie Academy, where he came under the guidance of Ricardo Almeida and Tom DeBlass, tracing a lineage back through Renzo Gracie, Carlos Gracie Jr., and Rolls Gracie to Mitsuyo Maeda. DeBlass awarded Tonon his black belt in September 2013, making him DeBlass's first black belt, a notable credential given DeBlass's own standing as a respected competitor and coach. Tonon developed within the Renzo Gracie ecosystem alongside a cluster of talented young no-gi specialists, eventually becoming one of the most recognizable members of John Danaher's famed Danaher Death Squad, the training group that also produced Gordon Ryan, Nicky and Nicky Rod Ryan, and other leading no-gi competitors of the 2010s.

Tonon's competitive identity was built almost entirely around leg locks and no-gi submission grappling, an area where his creativity and pace set him apart even within a training group full of leg-lock specialists. He became a dominant force in submission-only grappling formats, winning multiple Eddie Bravo Invitational titles across different weight classes over the course of his career, a format that rewarded exactly the aggressive, finish-hunting style he built his reputation on. He also collected IBJJF World and Pan American medals in both gi and no-gi competition, showing that his skill set translated even into rule sets that favored more conservative, positional grappling. At ADCC, widely considered the most prestigious no-gi tournament in the world, Tonon competed across three editions (2015, 2017, and 2019) before finally reaching the podium in 2019, winning a bronze medal in the -77kg division highlighted by a heel hook finish over Dante Leon.

In 2017 Tonon made the leap into mixed martial arts, signing with ONE Championship, the Singapore-based promotion that would become the stage for the rest of his full-time competitive career. He made his professional MMA debut in March 2018 in Thailand, winning by second-round TKO, and built a featherweight run over the following years defined by the same aggressive submission-hunting instincts that made him a star in grappling. He challenged then-champion Thanh Le for the ONE Featherweight World Title in March 2022 but came up short, and while he remained a consistently ranked featherweight contender over the following years, the title continued to elude him. Across 13 fights with ONE Championship, including a first-round win in January 2023, Tonon compiled a 9-2 professional MMA record before he and the promotion parted ways in April 2026 after nearly nine years together, following a decision loss to Shamil Gasanov in August 2025.

Tonon's importance to the sport extends well beyond his win-loss record. As one of the breakout stars of the Danaher Death Squad era, he played a central role in popularizing leg locks as a legitimate, high-percentage attacking system rather than a niche or last-resort tactic, influencing a generation of competitors who now train leg entanglements as a core part of their game. His blend of grappling artistry, submission-only success, and sustained MMA relevance in one of the sport's most competitive divisions makes him one of the clearest examples of a no-gi specialist who successfully built a full career across multiple combat sports disciplines.

Leg-lock specialist and scrambler known for relentless pace, creative entries from unorthodox positions, and a finishing instinct built in no-gi submission-only