Anyone tuning in to last night’s ONE Championship weigh ins hoping for more Itsuki Hirata related drama would have been disappointed. The Japanese atomweight passed her weigh and hydration tests at the first attempt.
Hirata weighed in at 114.25lbs, comfortably under the atomweight limit. Fighters have a three hour window of opportunity in which to pass the weight and hydration tests and the Japanese fighter did it with nearly two and a half hours to spare.
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Hard words
Seo Hee Ham has had some hard words for Hirata in the aftermath of their original fight, which was postponed when the Japanese fighter missed weight, and the buildup to this one. Just yesterday she accused her of being arrogant and unprofofessional.
But the first person to congratulate Hirata for making weight ahead of ONE Fight Night 8 was Ham. She said thank you in Japanese and gave her opponent a hug, which suggests there is not as much animosity between the pair as it appeared.
Had Hirata failed to make weight again Ham would have been left with a difficult decision. She set a precedent by turning down the first one on principle but refusing to compete would have left her sidelined for several more months.
Fortunately Ham was not left with any difficult decisions as Hirata made weight at the first attempt. The Korean had no issues either, she weighed in at 115.5lbs a few minutes before her opponent.
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Last minute
Iman Barlow and Ekaterina Vandaryeva both left it to the very last minute to weigh in ahead of their strawweight Muay Thai fight. The latter needed several attempts and had to get naked in order to make weight.
Vandaryeva looked much more relaxed and appeared to have made a deliberate decision to wait until her opponent made weight before stepping on the scales. The only fighter who wasn’t able to mass the weight and hydration tests was Eddie Abasolo.
Abasolo is booked to face Niclas Larsen in a featherweight Muay Thai fight. It will still go ahead but the two men will now need to agree on a catchweight with the American likely to give up a percentage of his purse.
