- Featherweight champ says it's 'devastating' and 'not human' to see Asians being subjected to racist abuse
- Australian-Vietnamese star 'heartbroken' by the hatred but vows to keep fighting to raise awareness
One Championship featherweight title-holder Martin Nguyen has condemned the racist attacks being carried out against Asians in Australia during the global Covid-19 pandemic.
The 31-year-old Nguyen " born and raised in Sydney to Vietnamese parents who moved to Australia " is back in his home city self-quarantining with his wife and children, after a proposed April title defence fell through. The coronavirus outbreak has played havoc with Asian martial arts organisation One's schedule, forcing them to postpone a string of shows.
But amid the battle against the deadly virus, Asians have encountered racial abuse in countries such as the United States, and Australia has been no different.
"Man, just the hate … the amount of hate that can come from somebody, that's just devastating to see, and it's not human," Nguyen told the Post.
"Showing hate towards a specific race over a disease that's going around, it's not right, it's completely wrong. The way people are going about it angers me.
"But it's out of my control. The only thing I can do is raise awareness and go from there, I can't do anything other than that."
Nguyen said he did not experience "anything like that at all" growing up in Sydney, but the testing times seem to be bringing the worst out of some people.
"It's just a matter of it happening now," Nguyen said. "Racism is gonna be there no matter what. There's gonna be people out there that have been brought up that way.
"When it starts happening over something like this, that's heartbreaking. You've got innocent people walking down the street getting abused. I don't like to think about it.
"The Situ-Asian" had been set to defend his featherweight belt against Thanh Le in Jakarta, Indonesia, at the "Infinity 1" card before the show was moved to One's home city of Singapore, where it would have been held behind closed doors. That is now off the cards too, with the government cancelling all events.
"Stay safe, the most important thing is to stay with your family, stay clean," was his message to his fans. "The world will move forward together and we'll get back to normal.
"You guys will see all the exiting fights. One Championship will be putting on event after event as soon as they're allowed and it's gonna be exciting times."
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