ONE Championship: Smilla Sundell misses weight, loses strawweight Muay Thai title on the scale

Smilla Sundell has lost her ONE Championship strawweight title on the scale after missing weight for Saturday morning's title fight with Natalia Diachkova.

'The Storm' passed hydration late on during Thursday's three-hour window for the official weigh-ins in Bangkok but was 1.5 pounds over the 125-pound limit, and a catchweight must now be negotiated.

Should the ONE Fight Night 22 main event go ahead, only Russia's Diachkova will be eligible to win the belt at Lumpini Stadium.

Sundell came in for an unofficial check two and a half hours into the weigh-ins but was 2.7 pounds over the strawweight limit, despite having been cutting weight for more than six hours on a treadmill and in a sauna nearby in Nonthaburi.

The 19-year-old Swede then came in for an official check and passed hydration but weighed in at 126.5 pounds – 1.5 pounds over the limit.

Her team played with the idea of cutting off her long hair, but ONE officials insisted it would not be enough – which did not go down well with her father, as tempers flared at the host Best Western Wanda Grand Hotel in Bangkok.

Muay Thai trainer Champ Fairtex – part of her team at the Pattaya-based Fairtex gym – then held Sundell's hair while standing on a chair behind her as she stepped on the scales, to see how much the hair weighed, but it was only a quarter of a pound.

Despite having around 20 minutes left in the window, Sundell and her team then decided to stop trying to make weight, which saw her vacate the title she won in April 2022 by defeating Jackie Buntan to become the division's inaugural champion.

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Sundell's strawweight reign ends after one defense

Sundell made a successful first defence by stopping atomweight champion Allycia Rodrigues last September. But the 1.73 metres-tall fighter and her team had suggested to Sportskeeda during fight week that she would not be able to make 125 pounds much longer, with her father hoping the Asia-based martial arts promotion ONE would introduce a flyweight division.

Sundell becomes just the fourth champion in ONE to lose their belt on the scale.

Her miss comes hot on the heels of Jonathan Di Bella losing his strawweight kickboxing title last month after failing to pass hydration for his title fight with Prajanchai PK Saenchai.

John Lineker and Kiamrian Abbasov also lost their bantamweight and welterweight MMA titles, respectively, on the scale in 2022.

The only other fighter to fail their checks on Thursday was Maurice Abevi, who did not pass hydration during three attempts for his lightweight MMA bout with China's Zhang Lipeng.

Abevi was left needing to return and pass hydration before he could attempt to negotiate a catchweight with Zhang, who had no problems.

The only other drama came when Akbar Abdullaev failed his first hydration test, but the Kyrgyzstani returned to make his featherweight MMA bout with Halil Amir official.

Amir, dropping down from lightweight, where he was ranked in the top five before the division's rankigns were removed, had no problems in a new weight class that he feels is more natural.