ONE Championship returned Friday with its first visit to Qatar – and three title fights at the top of the lineup to celebrate the occasion.
In the main event, light heavyweight champion Reinier de Ridder met Anatoly Malykhin in a rematch. Malykhin knocked out de Ridder in December 2022 to win the heavyweight belt while de Ridder was a two-division champion.
In the co-feature, lightweight champion Kai Tang put his title on the line in a rematch with Thanh Le, whom he beat in August 2022 to win the belt. They were scheduled to meet in mid-2023, but a Tang injury forced the delay.
ONE Championship 166 took place at Lusail Sports Arena in Al Masrouhiya, Qatar. Check out the results below.
Keito Yamakita def. Jeremy Miado
In the opening bout, Keito Yamakita (9-1) worked his magic on the ground and kept rolling with Jeremy Miado (10-7), no matter how Miado tried to work his way out of Yamakita’s choke attempts. But Yamakita wrapped up a bulldog choke and when he used the fence to tighten it, it forced Miado to tap at the 4:04 mark of the first round. Yamakita got back in the win column after a January loss and got his first submission finish since June 2021.
BULLDOG CHOKE 🥋 Keito Yamakita starts the night with a first-round submission!
Tune in NOW to catch the rest of ONE 166: Qatar!
🔴 Live Now#ONE166: Qatar presented by @visitqatar@mediacityqa @ooredooqatar
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🇬🇧🇮🇪 Watch live… pic.twitter.com/Cq2N4Ni8kp— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) March 1, 2024
Shinji Suzuki vs. Han Zi Hao
In a bantamweight muay Thai bout, Shinji Suzuki landed a second-round knockdown and rolled to a unanimous decision over longtime ONE fighter Han Zi Hao.
What do you think about this knockdown? 🤔
Tune in NOW to catch the rest of ONE 166: Qatar!
🔴 Live Now#ONE166: Qatar presented by @visitqatar@mediacityqa @ooredooqatar
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🌏 Check local listings… pic.twitter.com/dtelfKSlQ5— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) March 1, 2024
Zakaria El Jamari vs. Ali Saldoev
Zakaria El Jamari vs Ali Saldoev faceoff ONE 166 ceremonial weigh-ins
Early in the second, Ali Saldoev landed a perfect punch to the body and followed it up with a left hand on the button against Zakaria El Jamari for a KO in a 138-pound muay Thai bout.
STATEMENT MADE 👊 Ali Saldoev debuts with a spectacular KO!
Tune in NOW to catch the rest of ONE 166: Qatar!
🔴 Live Now#ONE166: Qatar presented by @visitqatar@mediacityqa @ooredooqatar
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🌏… pic.twitter.com/S4sGnr9CHQ— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) March 1, 2024
Osamah Almarwai vs. Cleber Sousa
Osamah Almarwai vs Cleber Sousa faceoff ONE 166 ceremonial weigh-ins
Cleber Sousa got opportunistic. He jumped for his finish, got the triangle choke position on the canvas, secured an arm, then got Osamah Almarwai to tap in their flyweight submission grappling bout.
NASTY 😬 Cleber Sousa submits Osamah Almarwai via armbar!
Tune in NOW to catch the rest of ONE 166: Qatar!
🔴 Live Now#ONE166: Qatar presented by @visitqatar@mediacityqa @ooredooqatar
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🌏 Check… pic.twitter.com/FuUuKpkLYp— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) March 1, 2024
Zafer Sayik vs. Vladimir Kuzmin
Zafer Sayik vs Vladimir Kuzmin faceoff ONE 166 ceremonial weigh-ins
Zafer Sayik took a decision from Vladimir Kuzmin in a 148-pound muay Thai bout in which Kuzmin lost a point for a yellow card illegal strike.
An illegal knee leads to a yellow card for Vladimir Kuzmin 🚫
Tune in NOW to catch the rest of ONE 166: Qatar!
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🌏… pic.twitter.com/Dwsv45bE8Q— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) March 1, 2024
Zuhayr Al-Qahtani vs. Mehdi Zatout
Zuhayr Al-Qahtani vs Mehdi Zatout faceoff ONE 166 ceremonial weigh-ins
Mehdi Zatout outworked Zuhayr Al-Qahtani for a unanimous decision in a 147-pound boxing bout to hand Al-Qahtani his first boxing loss. The fight was the pro boxing debut for Zatout.
“Diamond Heart” is putting on a show 😎
Tune in NOW to catch the rest of ONE 166: Qatar!
🔴 Live Now#ONE166: Qatar presented by @visitqatar@mediacityqa @ooredooqatar
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🌏 Check local listings… pic.twitter.com/h2rGVwh8CU— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) March 1, 2024
Arjan Bhullar vs. Amir Aliakbari
Arjan Bhullar vs Zuhayr Al-Qahtani faceoff ONE 166 ceremonial weigh-ins
Referee Herb Dean made things clear to former heavyweight champ Arjan Bhullar his fight against Amir Aliakbari. After repeated warnings from Dean that there needed to be more forward engagement, Dean issued Bhullar a yellow card early in the second round for continually backing up. A few minutes later, he pulled out the card again for another warning – each of which came with a 10 percent fine from Bhullar’s fight purse. He warned Bhullar at the start of the third that another warning would be a more severe punishment – which likely would be disqualification.
With 45 seconds left in the final round, Dean finally had seen enough. Even though Bhullar got a short reprieve earlier in the round for a low blow, Dean still deemed his actions after that as enough timidity to pull the red card out of his pocket for an immediate disqualification loss – no doubt a surprising scenario for a former champion to find himself in.
Amir Aliakbari is on the ATTACK 😤
Tune in NOW to catch the rest of ONE 166: Qatar!
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🌏 Check local listings for… pic.twitter.com/gNsI2MERPp— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) March 1, 2024
Jarred Brooks vs. Joshua Pacio
Jarred Brooks vs Joshua Pacio faceoff ONE 166 ceremonial weigh-ins
Strawweight (125 pounds for ONE) champion Jarred Brooks lost his title in a rematch against former champion Joshau Pacio by rare disqualification.
Brooks kicked high early and missed, but after a Pacio miss, Brooks spun quickly and took Pacio’s back. Pacio tried to throw him off and defended his neck, but Brooks stayed stuck to him and slammed him to the canvas head first. In ONE, a slam to the head, heck or spine is illegal. Replays showed Pacio landing head first, and because of that, referee Herb Dean ended the fight for a disqualification win for Pacio – meaning he won back the title, despite Brooks’ livid protests that his slam was legal.
Joshua Pacio reclaims the ONE Strawweight MMA World Title by disqualification due to an illegal spike by Jarred Brooks.
Tune in NOW to catch the rest of ONE 166: Qatar!
🔴 Live Now#ONE166: Qatar presented by @visitqatar@mediacityqa @ooredooqatar
🇶🇦 Watch live on beIN SPORTS… pic.twitter.com/a0gX8PkeRK— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) March 1, 2024
Kai Tang vs. Thanh Le
Tang Kai vs Thanh Le faceoff ONE 166 ceremonial weigh-ins
Featherweight (155 pounds for ONE) champion Kai Tang hooked up with interim champion Thanh Le in a title unification bout in the co-main event that wasn’t going in any kind of exciting way early. Both fighters were warned for not enough action. But in the third, Le made a mistake and put his hands down, and Tang came forward with a bomb of a right hand that put Le on the canvas. He pounced on Le immediately and pounded him out for the 13th finish of his career. The win was Le’s 11th straight, and he unified the titles in the process. He also was given a $50,000 bonus immediately after the win for the stoppage.
AND STILL 👑 Tang Kai TKOs Thanh Le in their rematch to unify the ONE Featherweight MMA World Title!
Tune in NOW to catch the rest of ONE 166: Qatar!
🔴 Live Now#ONE166: Qatar presented by @visitqatar@mediacityqa @ooredooqatar
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🇺🇸🇨🇦 Watch live on… pic.twitter.com/Veiy9IVWc6— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) March 1, 2024
Daammnn nasty ass KO!!! KAI did an amazing job of closing the void slowly as the fight went in! Congratz KAI #ONE166
— Demetrious Johnson (@MightyMouse) March 1, 2024
Anatoly Malykhin vs. Reinier de Ridder
Reinier de Ridder vs Anatoly Malykhin faceoff ONE 166 ceremonial weigh-ins
Anatoly Malykhin made ONE Championship history with a dominant performance against Reinier de Ridder to claim the middleweight (205 pounds) title and become a three-division champion, along with light heavyweight and heavyweight. Officially, the result goes down as a TKO at the 1:16 mark of Round 3, but what happened in the cage was Malykhin broke De Ridder’s spirit with his pressure throughout the fight.
De Ridder came out aggressively with this left hand in the first round, establishing a tone, but De Ridder did have some moments. Those moments dwindled in Round 2 as Malykhin kept De Ridder on his heels and against the cage, hammering away up top and to the body. When Malykhin opened Round 3 with the same aggression, it didn’t take long for De Ridder to shoot in for a lazy takedown that put him in position to absorb some ground-and-pound, including a few knees to the head. De Ridder threw one last desperation triangle attempt that Malykhin easily slipped out of and stood up to continue on the feet, but the sequence took too much out of De Ridder, who didn’t answer Herb Dean’s calls to stand up.
It’s the second time Malykhin has finished De Ridder as he took the light heavyweight belt with a first-round knockout in December 2022.
An unstoppable force 💥#ONE166 #ONEChampionship #MMA pic.twitter.com/lP63FgjHHf
— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) March 1, 2024
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