Exclusive | ONE Championship 165 in Qatar will have five title fights as CEO Chatri Sityodtong confirms return of numbered events
- Chairman and CEO confirms historic martial arts event in Qatar, with titles on the line across ‘all disciplines’
- No official date is set for ONE 165, but it is likely to be held in Doha in November or December
ONE Championship chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong has confirmed the return of numbered events, starting with ONE 165 in Qatar.
Chatri revealed the news in a simple statement posted to Facebook, though no date was given for the event, which is expected to be held in the capital Doha in either November or December.
He had mentioned a “big event in the Middle East in Q4” in a wide-ranging interview with the Post on Wednesday.
The card is set to become one of the most stacked in the Singapore-based martial arts organisation’s 11-year history, however.
Chatri told the Post via text message on Sunday there will be five title fights across all of ONE’s four disciplines – mixed martial arts, Muay Thai, kickboxing, and submission grappling.
One of those could see the two-weight MMA champion Anatoly Malykhin bid for a historic third title and challenge middleweight king Reinier de Ridder, whom he took the light heavyweight belt from in Manila last December – when the promotion held a double bill including ONE 164, its most recent numbered event, in Asian prime time.
The organisation has since only staged ONE Fight Night cards in US prime time – on Saturday mornings in Asia, largely out of Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok – as well as launching its weekly ONE Friday Fights cards at the same venue in 2023.
The Russian Malykhin also unified the ONE heavyweight MMA titles by beating Arjan Bhullar in June in Bangkok.
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“Anatoly has been begging to fight Reinier de Ridder at middleweight,” Chatri told the Post this week. “When Anatoly beat Arjan Bhullar, he called out RDR. And then at that point my team offered it to RDR and RDR declined.
“Big fights take time, take the right magic to work and all sides have to be aligned but I think the next big interesting fight is going to be RDR vs Anatoly II at middleweight.”
Chatri and ONE flyweight submission grappling champion Mikey Musumeci have all but confirmed a title defence against legendary flyweight MMA champion Demetrious Johnson is set for Qatar, in recent months.
The organisation also has a multi-year broadcast partnership with the Qatar-owned multinational network beIN Sports. Several episodes of the coming season two of The Apprentice: ONE Championship Edition were shot in Doha earlier this year.
The Qatar Investment Authority also led the last round of funding into the company nearly two years ago.
“It’s a really interesting market for us. It’s a young population, and digitally savvy. We’re doing a lot in Qatar, we have a lot of partners, but it’s a window for us into the Middle East market,” ONE group president Hua Fung Teh told the Post in June.
