3 Reasons Why You Should Witness the One 166: Qatar

ONE Championship will soon touch down at the beautiful Lusail Sports Arena in Doha, Qatar for the biggest combat sports event the country has ever seen.ONE 166: Qatar takes place on Friday, March 1, and boasts 10 massive fights featuring both global superstars and elite Middle Eastern talent.

Simply put, martial arts fans around the world are anxious with anticipation for this blockbuster fight card. Here are three reasons to tune in to ONE 166.

Fight card highlights: explosive World Title rematches

The bill is topped by a trio of high-stakes World Title rematches. In the main event, current ONE Heavyweight and Light Heavyweight MMA World Champion Anatoly “Sladkiy” Malykhin will look to become an unprecedented three-division titleholder when he runs it back with reigning middleweight MMA kingpin Reinier de Ridder.

Malykhin knocked out “The Dutch Knight” in devastating fashion back in December 2022 to win his ONE Light Heavyweight MMA World Title and extend his 100 percent career finishing rate Ridder is now hungry for revenge and determined to deal the heavy-handed Russian his first-ever defeat.

Before that, reigning ONE Featherweight MMA World Champion Tang Kai will clash with interim titleholder Thanh Le in an intriguing World Title unification bout. The pair first collided back in August 2022, when the Chinese star earned a hard-fought decision to claim Le’s featherweight MMA crown. Injury would then force Tang on the sidelines for all of 2023 – while the Vietnamese-American won interim gold with a submission win over Ilya Freymanov.

Each considered among MMA’s most dangerous finishers, Tang and Le will now go to war again, and one man will leave Qatar as the undisputed divisional king. And in the first World Title rematch, Jarred “The Monkey God” Brooks will put his ONE Strawweight MMA World Title on the line against former titleholder Joshua “The Passion” Pacio.

When the two first met in December 2022, the brash American showcased an incredibly well-rounded game over the course of 25 high-paced minutes to wrest the belt from Pacio. The Filipino superstar – who has since bounced back to the win column in impressive fashion – will now have his chance to silence Brooks and once again hold the ONE World Title.

A chance to witness history in the making

The headlining attraction between Malykhin and De Ridder could mark a truly historic moment in MMA, as “Sladkiy” could become the first-ever three-division MMA World Champion.

Undefeated across 13 professional fights with 13 highlight-reel stoppages, the Russian has already firmly established himself as one of the planet’s top pound-for-pound mixed martial artists. But a second win over De Ridder – and the ONE Middleweight MMA World Title that would go along with that – would be his crowning achievement.

In short, fans won’t want to miss their opportunity to witness MMA history being made.Of course, beating the Dutchman is no easy task. Prior to his loss to Malykhin, De Ridder boasted an undefeated 16-0 record, was a two-division ONE World Champion, and was considered perhaps the most talented submission artist in all of MMA.

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One’s comeback to the Middle Eastern region

ONE 166 will mark the organization’s landmark second appearance in Qatar and its first event in the Middle East in a decade. The country is already a hotbed for major international sports, hosting the 2022 World Cup. Now, with this blockbuster event, the collective eyes of the combat sports world will converge on the Lusail Sports Arena.

And if ONE’s unforgettable debut on American soil last year was any indication, fans can expect each and every fighter to be supremely motivated to put on a show and make a lasting impression on the Middle Eastern faithful.

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