ONE Championship 166 title fights set but two fighters fail to pass hydration in Qatar 

ONE Championship officials will have breathed a sigh of relief after all three title fights in Qatar were made officials at Thursday's weigh-ins, but two fighters failed to pass their hydration tests.

Vladimir Kuzmin and Ali Saldoev were left needing to give hydrated samples and to then negotiate catchweights with their respective opponents – Zafer Sayik (147.5 pounds), and Zakaria El Jamari (133.25 pounds) – after multiple misses during the three-hour testing window.

Tang Kai had given fans a scare when he failed hydration on his first attempt, putting Friday's ONE 166 co-main event at Lusail Sports Arena in jeopardy.

His opponent Thanh Le (154.25 pounds) had been fourth up to the scales, and waited, sat against a wall in the corner of the testing room, to see his opponent fail.

But the featherweight MMA champion from China returned to pass, and weighed in at 154.25 pounds to make his title unification fight against the interim champ official.

Anatoly Malykhin was the star of the show at the host Grand Hyatt Hotel & Villas, bellowing from the scales as he tipped the scales at 204.5 pounds.

Middleweight appears to suit the Russian two-division champion well – "let's go, this is the real Ronaldo," he joked, showing off his new slender, muscular frame.

"It's history time, three belt time," ONE's light heavyweight and heavyweight MMA champion added, ahead of March 1's main event.

There were no problems either for the defending champion, Reinier de Ridder, who came in slightly lighter at 204 pounds.

Jarred Brooks and Joshua Pacio are all set for a strawweight MMA title rematch on Friday, too. "The Monkey God" weighed in at 124.5 pounds, half a pound heavier than the former champion Pacio of the Philippines.

The only other drama on Thursday was provided by MMA heavyweight Amir Aliakbari, who failed to pass hydration with his first two samples.

The third time was the charm for the Iranian, who later narrowly passed with a reading of 0.0244 – just short of the 0.0250 threshold.

His opponent, the former champion Arjan Bhullar, had already made weight with ease at 245.25 pounds – one pound lighter than Aliakbari.

---

ONE 166 weigh-ins: The rest of the card

The other four fights on the lineup will all go ahead at their contracted weights.

Jeremy Miado of the Philippines (124.25 pounds) will open the card against Japan's Keito Yamakita (124 pounds).

Japan's Shinji Suzuki (144 pounds) then goes up against Han Zihao (144.75 pounds) in a bantamweight Muay Thai bout. The Chinese fighter screamed in delight and sunk to the floor, praying, after making weight – before being ushered out of the room, with others waiting to test.

Fifth on the bill is a flyweight submission grappling match between two former title challengers – Yemen's Osamah Almarwai (133.5 pounds) and Brazil's Cleber Sousa (134.75 pounds).

Former bantamweight Muay Thai standout Mehdi Zatout (144 pounds) of Algeria will also come out of retirement for "one last dance" in a catchweight boxing match against Saudi Arabia's Zuhayr Al-Qahtani (146.75 pounds).