By:  | August 29, 2022 10:44 am

Itsuki Hirata missed weight by 4lbs and was unable to pass hydration tests ahead of her fight with Heqin Lin at ONE on Prime Video 1 last weekend. The Japanese fighter managed to win with a very late comeback, dropping her opponent in the dying seconds of the bout to take the decision victory.

But Heqin is extremely unhappy about her opponent’s behaviour. In a lengthy Instagram post the Chinese fighter detailed how she was up until 3am on the night before the fight ensuring she could lose enough weight and claims her opponent did not to even try and get down to 115lbs:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by 林荷琴 (@linheqin)

Purse deduction

Hirata had 50% of her purse deducted after being unable to make weight or pass the hydration tests. Heqin decided to go ahead with the fight despite her opponent coming in at 4lbs over the atomweight limit.

According to Heqin the Japanese fighter did not even make an effort to lose weight and Hirata’s team also tried to harass her while she was losing the last few lbs:

“On that night I kept running until 3 am, Your team kept filming me, so I had to shout to stop you. After 3 hours of running, I still didn’t pass the urine test. I kept running and drinking water from 7 am to 1 pm on the 26th, but you still kept walking on the street leisurely and watching me run.”

Time and effort

Heqin could have pulled out of the fight but decided to go ahead because of all the time and effort that had gone into preparation. She acknowledged that her opponent deserved to get the decision win but says she has no respect for Hirata,

“Although that knock out made you win the fight, you are not worth my respect. I always think a fighter that can’t meet the weight requirements is not a good fighter, let alone you didn’t even try to lose weight. You do not have spirit of competition.”

Given how late the flurry which won Hirata the fight came she raises some interesting points. The fighter who stayed up until the early hours of the morning trying to make weight would clearly have a disadvantage against an opponent who gave up and got a good night’s sleep.

Of course there are two sides to every story and it will be interesting to see whether Hirata responds. But it sounds like Heqin has a legitimate cause for complaint and it will be interesting to see whether her opponent is allowed to compete at atomweight again.