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Two key fights ended in frustrating disqualifications at Friday’s ONE Championship show in Qatar.

Arjan Bhullar, a former UFC fighter and ONE heavyweight champion, was looking to rebound from a title loss to Anatoly Malykhin as he took on knockout machine Amir Aliakbari at ONE 166, but neither fighter engaged much in the opening round.

Veteran referee Herb Dean had to stop the bout and threaten both Bhullar and Aliakbari with a yellow card for not engaging, but the real punishment only came later. Aliakbari tried to attack more in the following rounds, but Bhullar did not engage.

Dern dinged Bhullar with a second yellow card, which also meant a 20 percent fine to his purse, but that was still not enough to force him to go on the offensive. A red card was then shown to Bhullar with 45 seconds left in the final round, awarding Aliakbari with a DQ victory.

Aliakbari, 14-3 in MMA, is now riding a four-fight winning streak. The Iranian talent finished Mauro Cerilli, Brandon Vera and Dustin Joynson in previous bouts.

Next on the card was a strawweight championship bout between champion Jarred Brooks and challenger Joshua Pacio, and it ended in under a minute. Pacio landed a leg kick and Brooks immediately circled him and went for a slam, dropping Pacio head-first on the ground, a move considered illegal under ONE rules. Brooks was disqualified and Pacio was crowned the new champion.

Watch the sequence below.

A championship unification bout between featherweight titleholders Tang Kai and Thanh Le was going the same direction in the co-main event after both fighters were shown yellow cards for timidity, but Kai closed the show with a vicious knockout with seconds left in the third round. Kai was awarded a $ 50,000 performance bonus after the victory.

In the early portion of the card, Japanese wrestler Keito Yamakita tapped out Jeremy Miado with bulldog choke (watch here). Check the complete ONE 166 results below.

Reinier de Ridder vs. Anatoly Malykhin
Tang Kai def. Thanh Le via TKO (punches) — Round 3, 4:48
Joshua Pacio def. Jarred Brooks via disqualification (illegal slam) — Round 1, 0:56
Amir Aliakbari def. Arjan Bhullar via disqualification (timidity) — Round 3, 4:15
Mehdi Zatout def. Zuhayr Al-Qahtani via unanimous decision [boxing]
Vladimir Kuzmin def. Zafer Sayik via unanimous decision [muay thai]
Cleber Sousa def. Osamah Almarwai via submission (armbar) — 5:31 [grappling]
Ali Saldoev def. Zakaria El Jamari via KO — Round 2, 0:51 [muay thai]
Shinji Suzuki def. Han Zi Hao via unanimous Decisiod [muay thai]
Keito Yamakita def. Jeremy Miado via submission (bulldog choke) — Round 1, 4:04

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Is he right?
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Who’s the real gangster? Chael Sonnen is the real gangster.

Jorge Masvidal raised more than a few eyebrows earlier this week when he called out Chael Sonnen for a fight.

“Gamebred” was quite explicit in this callout, insulting Sonnen in a variety of ways before dropping a laundry list of accusations at “The American Gangster’s” feet. It was a solid challenge … if Sonnen was still professionally fighting.

Chael hasn’t competed since 2019 and has comfortably transitioned to being an armchair analyst for MMA. He recently signed a deal to appear alongside Daniel Cormier on a new ESPN2 show, ‘Good Guy / Bad Guy.’ So to say he was a little confused by Masvidal’s callout would be accurate.

“I don’t know if I was challenged or I was threatened,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. “If I was a competitive fighter, I would understand: I have been challenged. By a guy much littler than I am, but challenged none the less … But because I’m not a competitive fighter, I felt like I was threatened.”

“Either way, policy will be applied: I will not let him get close. I cannot trust Jorge Masvidal. Jorge Masvidal will be in Miami next week, where I will be [for UFC 299] … I will be the person in the nice trimmed suit with the somewhat dimmed glasses and a crowd of people onlooking. I assume he will be the thug with the hood up that I need to have my eye out for.”

“Jorge Masvidal tried to come at me and call me a fake gangster,” Sonnen added. “I have more felonies than he does, which is jailhouse talk, I wouldn’t expect any of you to be impressed by that. But it means he sleeps on the bottom bunk and he will know what that means.”

Sonnen wasn’t the only name Masvidal dropped — he’s also still trying to land a boxing fight with Nate Diaz. That one makes sense. The two fought for the inaugural BMF belt back in 2019, with Masvidal winning off a cut. They both said at the time that they wanted a rematch. Why not do it now outside of the UFC, when they can both pocket all the money?

Unfortunately for Jorge, the Diaz brothers move in mysterious ways. “Gamebred” can’t seem to get Nate’s attention.

He can, however, get Chael Sonnen’s attention. Will he get Chael in the ring? Five years removed from his last fight, and in a sport where he can’t wrestle? It all seems borderline Jake Paul vs. Ben Askren, which may be the point. In this case, though, Chael gets paid every time he talks, so he’s probably just going to keep punking Masvidal on his socials.

Depending on what he says, he may just want to avoid visiting any steakhouses with the Nelk Boys while in Miami.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Keito Yamakita displayed his grappling skills to secure an impressive submission victory Friday at ONE Championship 166 in Qatar. The Japanese wrestler took on Filipino striker Jeremy Miado in the first bout of the evening in Lusail and kicked off the action with a nasty choke.

Yamakita didn’t waste any time taking Miado to the ground and immediately attempting to secure a rear-naked choke, with no hooks in, before locking a bulldog choke. The choke was in, and Yamakita went a step further by using the cage to apply pressure and force Miado to tap in just over four minutes of the opening round.

Watch the finish below.

Yamakita, a former Pancrase champion and now 9-1 in MMA, successfully rebounds from a decision defeat to Bokang Masunyane just over a month ago, improving to 2-1 under the ONE banner. Miado now holds a record of 10-7 under mixed martial arts rules, suffering his third straight loss in ONE.

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UFC Hall of Fame inductee, Daniel Cormier has hit back at former lightweight title challenger, Nate Diaz amid their ongoing feud over a potential return for the latter at UFC 306 in September – with the ex-duel-weight titleholder claiming Diaz is not in the same “stratosphere”. 

Cormier, a former undisputed heavyweight and light heavyweight gold holder under the promotion’s banner, shared his thoughts on a potential Octagon return in September at the Las Vegas Sphere for a once-off event – billed as UFC 306 during Mexican Independence Day weekend. 

And questioning if The Ultimate Fighter victor should even headline the event amid his interest in featuring at UFC 306 in a return to the promotion, Daniel Cormier revealed he had no interest in seeing Diaz fight in September.

“While the name value is exciting, Nate Diaz the fighter isn’t that guy anymore,” Daniel Cormier said. “He’ll get mad at me, and he might say something to me when i see him. I don’t know, I don’t really care. But we have to tell the truth. This isn’t the guy that beat Conor the first time. Nate has had moments. Against Leon Edwards, he had a moment. But outside of that, he got beat on the whole time.” 

“Will I watch him on the pay-per-view card? Absolutely,” Cormier continued. “But to be the headliner, with all these great fighters that are deserving of that spot? I don’t think so. I don’t need to see that.”

Daniel Cormier hits out at Nate Diaz amid UFC 306 feud

And hitting out at Cormier’s comments, Diaz questioned the fighting ability of the ex-UFC champion, which the former immediately refuted.

“The reality is, one thing we will not do is compare myself to Nate Diaz, because it’s different levels,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “Much different. I’m a champion. Two weight classes. I lost three times in my career. Four if you count the fight that was called a no-contest. Four times, two guys. We are on much different wave lengths, we are on much different planets.”

“We are not in the same stratosphere in terms of fighters,” Cormier explained. “We’re not. And it’s time for me to stop allowing people to attack or come at me in these ways when I’m doing my job.”

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Champ-champ
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Bringing you the weird and wild from the world of MMA each and every weeknight!

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Next weekend (March 9, 2024), Dustin Poirier returns to action at UFC 299 in Miami, Florida opposite rising Lightweight star Benoit Saint Denis in the co-main event. It’s a major fight for “The Diamond,” who is in a somewhat vulnerable position, having most recently lost via knockout to current BMF king Justin Gaethje. In addition, he’s fighting significantly down the rankings.

Poirier has been ranked among the Lightweight elite for about as long as anyone can remember. By and large, he’s fought nobody except Top Five opponents since he defeated Max Holloway to claim interim gold in April 2019. This time, however, he’ll face the streaking French fighter, who stands at just No. 12 in the official rankings.

A respectable spot, sure, but it’s quite a step down in profile from Conor McGregor, Gaethje, or Michael Chandler. Why take the risk?

“To test myself really,” Poirier explained to TMZ Sports. “To see if I still got it. This guy is young, hungry, on a streak, has finished his last five opponents. That makes me nervous, so I want to toss myself in the fire. There’s where I feel I do my best work, and those are the kinds of fighters I want to fight. Guys who are leaving it all out there, showing grit, they fight for finishes. That’s the kind of fight I want to be involved in.”

After admitting that at this point in his career, he’s not making big plans and instead taking his career “fight to fight,” Poirier is aware that the end could come at any time. Poirier isn’t planning to retire after the Saint Denis bout, but given his age and the amount of battle he’s gone through, it shouldn’t be a surprise if Poirier suddenly decides to hang up the gloves.

“Every fight could be it,” Poirier concluded. “Every fight. Where I’m at, 35 years old, this is my 30th fight in the UFC. Every fight could be it.”

Insomnia

Two Welterweight veterans outside the Top 15 that pretty much guarantee a quality scrap — good matchmaking!

The UFC cannot be pleased with Renato Moicano voicing his opinion in this manner.

Ryan Garcia seems to be in a reckless state of mind. How long until fishnets?!?

In case further evidence that Ilia Topuria can crack was necessary …

Put this man in the cage against Chris Barnett!

For the first time, I don’t understand the point of this Georges St. Pierre exercise.

I’m reminded of that time Robbie Lawler “landed” a flying knee but really seemed to hit his opponent with his cup.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

I dream of the day when upkicks to a grounded opponent are allowed.

I believe this is the MMA version of a pyrrhic victory.

Amazing composure to duck those shots and then nail the head kick so perfectly.

Random Land

The one and only time I went to Venice Beach, my Army buddy got in a fistfight with a crackhead who was throwing Lime scooters everywhere, so … this video tracks for me.

Midnight Music: Acid rock, 1966

Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.

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