Senegalese wrestling sensation Oumar Kane will be back in action at ONE 161. He has been matched with Batradz Gazzaev at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on September 29th.

‘Reug Reug’ was last seen quitting on his stool at the end of the second round. He suffered the first loss of his career against Kirill Grishenko at ONE on TNT IV last year.

The 6’4″ star had been scheduled to face BJJ black belt Marcus Buchecha in April. But he pulled out of that contest with an undisclosed injury.

Kane (3-1) will be looking to rebound after his first defeat and has had over a year to reflect on that loss to Grishenko. Gazzaev (3-0) only made his pro debut last year and the opponents he has beaten do not have good records.

Top Thais

As previously announced ONE 161 will be headlined by a featherweight Muay Thai title fight. Petchmorakot Petchyindee will be defending his title against Tawanchai PKSaenchaigym.

Petchmorakot has held the title since 2020 and successfully defended it three times. Before signing with ONE Championship he was a star in the Bangkok stadiums winning Lumpinee titles in three different divisions.

Tawanchai has enjoyed a similar level of success in the Bangkok stadiums and was named the Lumpinee fighter of the year in 2018 although he hasn’t had the opportunity to fight for as many titles as Petchmorakot.

The 23 year old southpaw is coming off two very impressive stoppage wins. He has finished both Saemapetch Fairtex and Niclas Larsen with straight left hands.

Grand Prix

Meanwhile ONE Championship has announced a heavyweight kickboxing Grand Prix. There are four fighters in the tournament which will get underway at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on September 29th.

Bruno Chaves has been matched with reigning light heavyweight kickboxing champion Roman Kryklia in one semi final while Guto Inocente takes on Iraj Azizpour in the other. The Ukrainian is currently on an 11 fight winning streak and the Brazilian is coming off a very impressive win over Rade Opacic.

Atomweight bout

As previously announced Ritu Phogat will be facing Tiffany Teo at ONE 161 on September 29th. The two will face off at the Singapore Indoor Stadium with the Indian looking to bounce back from her loss in the atomweight Grand Prix final.

The Singaporean will be making her atomweight debut. Meanwhile Phogat sounded extremely confident,

“My long break has helped me to fully recover and I feel that I’m stronger than ever before and ready to crush my opponent,”
she told the Times of India.

Headliner cancelled

A heavyweight unification bout had been booked to headline the ONE 161 card. Regular champion Arjan Bhullar was set to take on interim champion Anatoly Malykhin.

The fight has been in the works for over a year now with both men accusing each other of trying to hide. But it has been postponed again with Bhullar reportedly suffering an injury in training.

New slot

The event will take place on a Thursday night, the first time ONE Championship has ever scheduled a show for this time slot. Less than two days later will be the promotion’s second live event on Amazon Prime.

ONE on Amazon Prime 2 is set to take place on October 1st (local time) which will be a Saturday morning in Singapore. The event will be broadcast live by the online streaming service in North America.

ONE 161, Singapore, September 29th
Petchmorakot Petchyindee (c) vs. Tawanchai PKSaenchaigym (For Featherweight Title)
Kickboxing: Roman Kryklia vs. Guto Inocente (Heavyweight Grand Prix Semi Finals)
Kickboxing: Iraj Azizpour vs. Bruno Chaves (Heavyweight Grand Prix Semi Finals)
Zhang Lipeng vs. Saygid Izagakhmaev (Lightweight)
Ritu Phogat vs. Tiffany Teo (Atomweight)
Yuya Wakamatsu vs. Wang Shuo (Flyweight)
Kickboxing: Captain Petchyindee vs. Alaverdi Ramazanov (Bantamweight)
Zhang Chenglong vs. Sangmanee PKSaenchaigym (Bantamweight)
Oumar Kane vs. Batradz Gazzaev (Heavyweight)
Muay Thai: Han Zi Hao vs. Ferrari Fairtex (Bantamweight)
Submission grappling: Rodrigo Marello vs. Ruslan Bagdasarian (Bantamweight)
Matheus Felipe vs. Ali Foladi (Middleweight)