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For the first time in history, ONE Championship took to Qatar with a loaded ONE 166 card inside the Lusail Sports Arena, where 10 exciting fights were put together.
Three world title fights spearheaded the ground-breaking event, headlined by the ONE middleweight MMA world title clash between Reinier de Ridder and Anatoly Malykhin.
With the stacked cast of superstars across various martial arts disciplines, and finishes scattered across the bill, who among them took home the coveted $50,000 performance bonus from ONE Championship Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong? Let’s find out.
#2. Tang Kai (Undisputed ONE featherweight MMA world championship)
Chinese world champion Tang Kai has officially closed the rivalry between him and Thanh Le by scoring a third-round TKO finish during their ONE featherweight MMA world title unification match in the co-headliner of the card.
Kai hunted the former world champion from start to finish and brushed off an early yellow card warning from the referee to extend his reign in the division.
Kai’s main weapon in getting the victory was the looping right hand that instantly dropped his Vietnamese-American opponent.
Once he sensed that the finish was near, the 27-year-old sensation jumped on the interim title holder and poured down a nasty sequence of ground-and-pound to force Olivier Coste to call the stoppage, thus securing the $50,000 bonus.
#1. Anatoly Malykhin (ONE middleweight MMA world championship)
History was made by Anatoly Malykhin in the main event of ONE 166: Qatar, as he overcame a resilient Reinier de Ridder via third-round TKO to capture his third world title in as many divisions.
Despite the valiant effort from ‘The Dutch Knight,’ who gave more resistance against ‘Sladkiy’ this time around compared to their previous meeting, the Russian was in cruise control on his way to etching his name into the history books.
The Russian powerhouse once again overpowered de Ridder with his top-class boxing skills, which stunned him multiple times during the fight.
Eventually, the middleweight king crumbled to Malykhin’s superior striking on the canvas, where the latter got the job done to earn himself a deserving $50,000 performance bonus from the ONE head honcho.
North American viewers with an active Amazon Prime Video subscription can rewatch all the action from ONE 166: Qatar via the free event replay.
