ONE Championship: Four fighters miss weight for Fight Night 21 on dramatic evening as hotel power cut halts weigh-ins

Despite the drama caused by a power cut at the host hotel, Thursday night’s official checks revealed that four fighters had failed to make weight for ONE Championship’s Fight Night 21 card.

Despite the delay caused by the power outage at the Best Western Plus Wanda Grand, the lights and air conditioning were restored and the clock was restarted at 1 hour and 44 minutes. In a last-minute rush, Nicolas Leite Silva, Songchainoi Kiatsongrit, Vladimir Kuzmin, and Dedduanglek TDed99 all managed to line up with just one minute remaining in the official three-hour testing window.

Anatoly Malykhin, a three-division MMA champion who was in Bangkok to corner his fellow countryman Kuzmin against Suablack Tor Pran49, was politely urging Silva to quickly get off the scale after he failed hydration for the third time that evening. This would allow Kuzmin to complete his weigh-in.

The senior director of competition, Ric Auty, reminded the Russian that since all four fighters had provided samples before the time ran out, there was no need to hurry and they would all have an opportunity.

Next up was debutant flyweight Muay Thai star Dedduanglek, who successfully passed his hydration test on his second attempt following an initial failure.

Despite his previous weight struggles, he once again entered the kickboxing rematch with Taiki Naito overweight. As he stepped off the scales, Malykhin playfully ran his hand through the Thai’s thick hair, joking that he could have shaved it off beforehand.

Dedduanglek promptly accepted a catchweight fight at 136lbs against Japan’s Naito, with the latter receiving a 30 percent share of the Thai’s earnings.

Kuzmin, who had previously missed weight in Qatar before his decision win over Zafer Sayik last month, once again failed his fourth attempt at passing hydration.

Kuzmin was required to return and provide a sample of urine in order to negotiate a catchweight with Suablack, who successfully made weight without any difficulties.

As a perfect ending to a chaotic evening, Dr. Warren Wang declined to test Songchainoi’s second sample due to its insufficient volume of less than 10 milliliters.

Both the Thai fighter and his opponent Silva were required to provide hydrated samples and renegotiate a new catchweight after failing to make the contracted weight of 116 lbs.

An hour later, Songchainoi returned and successfully completed hydration before stepping on the scale at 120.25 lbs.

Earlier in the night, there was a lot more excitement as welterweight submission grappling champion Tye Ruotolo managed to survive a close call.

The 21-year-old American was unsuccessful in his initial two hydration attempts, causing concerns that he may not make weight and risk losing his belt.

Despite two previous attempts, the champion was finally successful and will now defend his title against Australia’s Izaak Michell, who also had to make two attempts to pass hydration.

Despite facing some difficulties, Valmir Da Silva was able to return and successfully pass hydration on his second attempt. He also managed to make weight for his welterweight MMA fight against Hiroyuki Tetsuka.

The most crucial aspect, however, is that the lightweight Muay Thai title fight scheduled for Saturday morning is now official. Both champion Regian Eersel and challenger Alexis Nicolas have successfully made weight without any difficulties.

Ben Tynan and Duke Didier have both been cleared to compete in a heavyweight MMA bout, making them eligible to participate in the event.

Prior to their flyweight Muay Thai clash, Jacob Smith and Denis Puric had no conflicts, and the bantamweight MMA bout between Jeremy Pacatiw and Wang Shuo was also confirmed.