ONE Championship made a historic debut in Qatar this past weekend. They showcased a stacked card that was headlined by three world title fights inside the Lusail Sports Arena.
Anatoly Malykhin’s ONE middleweight MMA world title triumph was the fitting ending to the event, as he became the first and only athlete in the promotion’s history to capture three world titles in three different weight classes.
During the post-event press conference, ONE Championship Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong made a massive claim about the accolade. He believes that this breakthrough in the Middle East region is a building block for the world’s largest martial arts organization to put up more events on that side of the world:
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“I love Qatar, it’s one of my favorite countries in the world and I’ve grown to love it over the last six, seven years. I’ve come here for many trips and I’m obviously very grateful that Qatar is an investor and owns a piece of ONE. We have an outstanding partnership across the entire ecosystem of business and government in Qatar, so I predict that this is the beginning of big things to come and what a great turn out crowd for a first-time event in Qatar.”
The ONE Championship head honcho, a lifelong martial arts practitioner, doubled down on the possibility that the promotion could be at the forefront of the sport’s growth in Qatar, as he added:
“In the Middle East, martial arts are not yet mainstream, it’s just the very beginning but the opportunities are massive here, so we’re excited to play a small part in the martial arts revolution in Qatar.”
ONE Championship: Anatoly Malykhin ended ONE 166 with a spectacular TKO
Despite having multiple yellow cards and a red card throughout the card, the headliner has lived up to its expectation of an all-out war between MMA world champions Anatoly Malykhin and Reinier de Ridder.
Malykhin’s top-class boxing and elite takedown defense, however, were too much for ‘The Dutch Knight’ to handle, as he eventually crumbled into a third-round TKO finish. This victory and performance from ‘Sladkiy’ have awarded him a $50,000 bonus.
North American viewers with an active Prime Video subscription can rewatch all the action from ONE 166: Qatar via the free event replay.
