The atomweight title eliminator between Seo Hee Ham and Itsuki Hirata has been rescheduled. The two will now face off at ONE Fight Night 8 on March 24th in Singapore.
The two were originally set to fight each other at ONE 163. But when Hirata failed her hydration test Ham refused to fight her, pointing out that the Japanese fighter had a history of missing weight.
Ham (25-8) has won two fights out of two for ONE Championship, beating Denice Zamboanga by decision on both occasions. She is currently ranked #2 at atomweight and is the former Rizin 108lbs champion.
Hirata (6-1) is coming off a narrow decision win over Heqin Lin but missed weight by over 4lbs. She is currently unranked and has been training in New York while Ham was sidelined for several months last year due to injury.
ย
View this post on Instagramย
Heavyweight clash
As previously announced a heavyweight unification bout will headline ONE Fight Night 8 on March 24th. Regular champion Arjan Bhullar will face interim champion Anatoly Malykhin in a card that is being broadcast live on Prime Video in North America.
The fight has been in the works for over a year now and was originally booked for ONE 161 in September. Bhullar pulled out of that event in order to undergo arm surgery.
Instead of challenging Bhullar the Russian dropped down to light heavyweight and handed Reinier de Ridder the first loss of his entire career. The Dutchman had dominated the division up until that point but it was a completely one sided fight with Malykhin winning the light heavyweight title.
He was already the interim heavyweight champion making the March 24th fight a unification bout:
ย
View this post on Instagramย
Two champions
Bhullar (11-1) is the regular champion. He won the belt by stopping Brandon Vera last year but has not fought in 14 months after becoming involved in a contractual dispute which was ultimately resolved.
With Bhullar sidelined due to those contract negotiations the promotion introduced an interim belt. Malykhin (12-0) won it by stopping Kirill Grishenko in the second round and the two men have been going back and forth on social media for over a year now.
Malykhin has repeatedly accused Bhullar of being a chicken while Chatri Sityodtong told reporters he fought the Canadian was running scared. The Russian was extremely dismissive in the aftermath of his win over de Ridder:
The new two-division ONE World Champion ain't got time for that ๐ฅ Who wants to see this fight BOOKED?#ONEonPrimeVideo5 #WeAreONE #ONEChampionship pic.twitter.com/gd6pKeDeWI
โ ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) December 3, 2022
Unification bout
Meanwhile Allycia Rodrigues and Janet Todd will finally fight at ONE on Fight Night 8. The fight has been several years in the making and will have the undisputed atomweight Muay Thai title on the line.
Rodrigues is the regular champion while Todd holds the interim belt. The Brazilian has been out of action for nearly two years after becoming pregnant and giving birth to her first son.
Meanwhile Todd currently holds the atomweight kickboxing and interim Muay Thai titles. The American has won her last seven ONE Championship fights and will be looking to follow in the footsteps of Stamp Fairtex by becoming an undisputed two sport champion.
ย
View this post on Instagramย
Last minute
The two were originally set to face off at ONE on Prime Video 5. But the bout was called off at the last minute when Todd tested positive for Covid -19.
Afterwards Rodriguez declared that โitโs all in Godโs handsโ and the Brazilian might have been relieved that the bout was postponed as she was unable to make weight.
She tipped the scales at 113.5lbs, comfortably under the atomweight limit. But her hydration tests came in at 1.0303, slightly above the ONE Championship limit which is set at 1.0250.
At this stage Rodriguez knew she would not be fighting. But she was still in line to get a fight purse and having come in overweight will have affected the amount of money she received.
ย
View this post on Instagramย
All Thai
Rodtang Jitmuangnon and Superlek Kiatmoo9 will face off in an all Thai kickboxing fight at ONE Fight Night 8. The latter will be putting his flyweight title on the line at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Both men are seasoned Muay Thai fighters with limited experience in kickboxing. They are also both champions with Rodtang currently holding the Muay Thai title.
Rodtang has won 13 fights out of 13 for ONE Championship, not including his mixed rules bout with Demetrious Johnson. But the promotion has never previously matched him with a Thai opponent and this looks set to be a serious challenge for the 25 year old.
Superlek has won six fights in a row since dropping a contentious decision to Ilias Ennahachi in a flyweight kickboxing title fight. He comes into this contest on the back of an extremely impressive run of recent results.
ONE Fight Night 8, Singapore, March 25th
Arjan Bhullar (c) vs. Anatoly Malykhin (For heavyweight title)
Muay Thai: Allycia Rodrigues vs. Janet Todd (For atomweight title)
Kickboxing: Superlek Kiatmoo9 (c) vs. Rodtang Jitmuangnon (For flyweight title)
Itsuki Hirata vs. Seo Hee Ham (Atomweight)
