Garry Tonon is one of the most decorated Brazilian jiu-jitsu competitors alive today and he is also a training partner of former UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre.
When it comes to the upcoming UFC 217 main event, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu expert says GSP can submit UFC Middleweight Champion Michael Bisping.
“There’s definitely a good chance that you see GSP submit Bisping, for sure,” Tonon told MMA Fighting. “I don’t want to lead you into our plans and our strategies for the fight, I can’t give those details away, but is he capable of submitting Bisping? Absolutely. I’ll put it this way he’s far more capable of submitting Bisping than Bisping submitting Georges.”
Bisping has only been submitted once before, against former UFC Middleweight Champion Luke Rockhold at UFC Fight Night 55.
Tonon believes that the only major adjustments GSP will have is the new weight class he is competing in and his opponent.
“The only new part about this is the opponent and the new weight class. So whether or not he’s going to be different when he comes back? I think of course he’ll be different. He’s just as tough to deal with in training as he ever was for any of the other fights, if not tougher. Over the years, I believe he’s developed his grappling skills even better than for the Nick Diaz fight. It’s been exciting seeing his progression because he only gets to work with us for a limited amount of time and the amount of improvement that he makes in the time he gets to grapple with us, it’s pretty exciting to see. I don’t know how it would be if he got to see us every single day, that would be scary. I think he could be one of the greatest grapplers of all time if he wanted to,” says Tonon.
UFC 217 takes place on Saturday, November 4 from Madison Square Garden in New York, New York with Michael Bisping and Georges St. Pierre headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
