“I was shocked” - Chatri Sityodtong hails Rodrigo Marello’s impressive performance at ONE 161

Chatri Sityodtong has revealed who he was most impressed with at ONE 161.

ONE 161 featured several upsets. That included in the main event, where Tawanchai P.K. Saenchai took out Petchmorakot Petchyindee for the featherweight Muay Thai world title.

However, it turns out that a different performance was more 'surprising' for Sityodtong.

During the ONE 161 post-event media interview, Sityodtong had this to say when asked about who surprised him the most:

“I was most surprised by Rodrigo Marello submitting a two-time Sambo world champion. I thought by far that Ruslan [Bagdasarian] was going to roll through Rodrigo. That's what I was predicting when I saw how confident Ruslan was after the faceoff. He said, 'I'm going to heel hook Rodrigo,' and that's cool. They're super, super confident. Obviously, two-time Sambo world champion. He's obviously a submission master. So, yeah man, I was shocked.”

Rodrigo Marello showed how exciting submission grappling can be when he submitted Ruslan Bagdasarian in 15 seconds. ONE Championship’s expansion into submission grappling is just beginning and is already producing must-see highlights.

Watch the ONE 161 post-event media interview from Chatri Sityodtong below:

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Chatri Sityodtong offers an update on expansion to United States

ONE Championship expanding into the United States has been a massive step towards further enhancing the promotion's place on the global stage. According to Chatri Sityodtong, it’s only the beginning.

During the same post-event interview, the ONE CEO had this to say about their U.S. expansion:

"They [Amazon Prime] are putting us on primetime on Fridays at 8 p.m. It's a match made in heaven. I'm telling you, it's the very beginning of this relationship. We do intend to have more events on ground in the U.S. We do intend to have more primetime shows on air in the U.S... 12 Amazon Prime video events right now is just the very very beginning of what we have planned for the U.S. for ONE."

According to the promotion, the ONE on Prime Video event series has exceeded all expectations, both from ONE Championship and Amazon Prime Video's point of view.

The events have featured thrilling fights and easy access for the U.S. audience. It’ll be intriguing to see how many tickets are sold when they hold a premier event with their superstars in the U.S.