ONE Championship finally made their debut in Qatar on Friday with a stacked event in ONE 166, featuring three top-notch title fights leading the charge.
The main event represented yet another chance for a fighter to make history as a triple champ in MMA, with Anatoly Malykhin, already holding heavyweight and light heavyweight gold, went after Reinier de Ridder’s middleweight title. Patricio Pitbull and Salahdine Parnasse had both tried to achieve triple champ status in 2023 only to fall short. Could Malykhin succeed where others had failed?
ONE’s biggest MMA card in a year also featured a featherweight title unification bout, as champ Tang Kai met interim title hold Thanh Le, the man he had originally defeated to claim gold. Le had submitted Ilya Freymanov in October to claim the interim championship.
Finally, strawweight champion Jarred Brooks looked to continue his impressive post-UFC run when he ran things back with ex-champ Joshua Pacio.
Boxing, submission grappling, and Muay Thai action were also in store for fight fans in Qatar.
Where to Watch ONE 166: Qatar
ONE Championship’s much anticipated debut in Qatar takes place Friday, March 1, 2024 at the Lusail Sports Arena. Where available, the card streams live and free online in the video embed below. Full results from Friday’s event can also be found below. The action gets underway at 7:30AM ET, 4:30AM PT for fight fans in the west.
ONE 166: Qatar Results
Anatoly Malykhin def. Reinier de Ridder (c) by TKO, Round 3, 1:16 — for the ONE middleweight championship
Tang Kai (c) def. Thanh Le (ic) by TKO, Round 3, 4:48 — for the ONE featherweight championship / title unification bout
Joshua Pacio def. Jarred Brooks (c) by DQ (spike), Round 1, 0:56 — for the ONE strawweight championship
Amir Aliakbari def. Arjan Bhullar by DQ, Round 3, 4:15
Mehdi Zatout def. Zuhayr Al-Qahtani by unanimous decision — Boxing
Vladimir Kuzmin def. Zafer Sayik by unanimous decision — Muay Thai
Cleber Sousa def. Osamah Almarwai by submission (arm-bar), 5:31 — Submission Grappling
Ali Saldoev def. Zakaria El Jamari by knockout, Round 2, 0:51 — Muay Thai
Shinji Suzuki def. Han Zi Hao by unanimous decision — Muay Thai
Keito Yamakita def. Jeremy Miado by submission (bulldog choke), Round 1, 4:04
