Halil Amir, Saygid Izagakhmaev shake up ONE rankings

With Saygid Izagakhmaev and Halil Amir, ONE Championship had some massive shifts to their lightweight rankings. Amir made a stunning debut that clearly left a mark. Plus, Dagestan's Saygid Izagakhmaev earned his way further into the top five in this stacked division.

Halil Amir had a debut to remember at ONE on Prime Video 2, knocking out former ONE lightweight world title challenger Timofey Nastyukhin in the second round of their match. He also won a $50k bonus for his effort and took Nastyukhin’s No.3 spot in the rankings.

After the fight had wrapped up, the Turkish-born fighter said it was the most meaningful win of his career. He also prepared for it as the biggest fight of his life. On Instagram, he said:

"All those grueling hours spent training, making sacrifices to reach your goals and never giving up ... The most intense preparations of my life were put into this—he would have had to kill me inside the cage before he could take home a victory that night"

Halil Amir is a ONE Championship debutant who had a major test in his first run in the organization. The 28-year-old fighter impressed the international audience with a dominant TKO stoppage of Nastyukhin. This victory earned Amir a spot in the updated official rankings.

ONE Championship uploaded Halil Amir's debut on YouTube with the caption:

"Turkish phenom Halil Amir made a STATEMENT debut against #3-ranked lightweight contender Timofey Nastyukhin at ONE on Prime Video 2!"

Watch the fight below:

Saygid Izagakhmaev moves one spot up

There was some other movement in the lightweight divisional rankings as Saygid Izagakhmaev switched spots with Shinya Aoki. Izagakhmaev won a dogfight on the ground against MMA veteran Zhang Lipeng at ONE 161. For his part, Aoki was inactive this past weekend.

Russian-born Saygid Izagakhmaev was previously ranked fifth in the busy lightweight division. With his second win in the organization, earned at ONE 161, he successfully moved up to the fourth spot.

Izagakhmaev has ONE gold on his mind. Trained by the legendary Khabib Nurmagomedov, the 28-year-old Dagestani wants to show off his skills against the lightweight king Christian Lee.

On Instagram, Izagakhmaev called his shot and declared: