- George Chung
- Mar 1, 2024
- 3 min read
ONE Championship’s debut in Qatar featured 10 martial arts bouts from MMA to Muay Thai to submission grappling and even a boxing match thrown in for good measure.
ONE 166 saw three title tilts headline the evening inside Lusail Sports Arena, and two new champions were crowned. Here are the results of ONE 166.
Anatoly Malykhin set out to make history and did exactly that. Reinier De Ridder did much better in the rematch, but the Russian was simply too much. “Sladkiy” stuffed the takedown attempts and pressured until “The Dutch Knight” could handle no more. Unable to rise to his feet in the third round, Malykhin became a three-division titleholder by claiming the ONE Middleweight MMA World Championship.
Tang Kai left no doubt in the featherweight title unification bout against Thanh Le. The Chinese star took his time to figure out his American foe and then struck when the time was right. After baiting Thanh and getting him to react, Tang dropped him with a crisp right hand. After some ground and pound, the match was called, and Tang earned another incredible finish to restart his reign.
Joshua Pacio reclaimed the ONE Strawweight MMA World Championship, but not in the manner he wanted. With Jarred Brooks on his back, Pacio threatened with a kimura. In defense of the submission, Brooks spiked Pacio on the mat, leading to a disqualification just 56 seconds into the match.
Mehdi Zatout made coming out of retirement look easy. Zatout breezed through a three-round boxing bout against Zuhayr Al-Qahtani to pick up a unanimous decision victory. Zatout was crisp and quick, not allowing his opponent any rhythm during their bout.
Cleber Sousa got back in the win column over Osamah Almarwai in a high-stakes flyweight submission grappling bout. The Brazilian gained momentum while seeking early finishes from heel hooks to armbars and eventually found himself with an inverted triangle-armbar. Once he got the arm, Almarwai had nowhere to go and tapped out.
Ali Saldoev rallied in his Muay Thai match to score a second-round knockout. After a shot to the body lowered the hands of Zakaria El Jamari, Saldoev went to the head and connected flush to score the bout-ending blow.
The event started strong with Keito Yamakita taking care of business over Jeremy Miado. As the two hit the canvas, the Japanese talent grabbed Miado’s neck with a bulldog choke and squeezed. Although “The Jaguar” tried to escape, eventually he tapped out, realizing there was nothing more he could do.
If you missed ONE 166, you can relive the action on-demand on Prime Video, watch.onefc.com and ONE’s official YouTube channel.
ONE 166 Full Results
Anatoly Malykhin def. Reinier de Ridder by TKO at 1:16 of the third round
Tang Kai def. Thanh Le by TKO at 4:48 of the third round
Joshua Pacio def. Jarred Brooks by disqualification at 0:56 of the first round
Amir Aliakbari def. Arjan Bhullar by disqualification at 4:15 of the third round
Mehdi Zatout def. Zuhayr Al-Qahtani by unanimous decision
Vladimir Kuzmin def. Zafer Sayik by unanimous decision
Cleber Sousa def. Osamah Almarwai via submission (armbar) at 5:31 of the first round
Ali Saldoev def. Zakaria El Jamari by KO at 0:51 of the second round
Shinji Suzuki def. Han Zi Hao by unanimous decision
Keito Yamakita def. Jeremy Miado via submission (bulldog choke) at 4:04 of the first round
