ONE 166 took place on March 1st, 2024 and although there was just one grappling match between Cleber Sousa and Osamah Almarwai, there was a ton of action throughout the event. Keito Yamakita kicked off the card with a great highlight for grappling fans, as he locked up a rarely-seen bulldog choke in order to submit Jeremy Miado in the first round. A pair of Muay Thai fights followed that and they delivered plenty of entertainment, leading right into the only grappling match of the night afterward. Cleber Sousa and Osamah Almarwai made the walk down to the ring and both men were undoubtedly eager to prove themselves in the promotion’s flyweight division.
Sousa dropped for a single-leg early but Almarwai shut it down and pressed him against the cage, but Sousa circled away and was able to go for another single-leg. He finished it this time and took up position in half-guard, with Almarwai attempting a choi bar entry before transitioning to a false reap when that failed. Sousa stood up to escape the false reap but Almarwai was chasing his legs relentlessly, putting Sousa under some pressure from the bottom. Sousa got the bite on a heel hook without controlling the knee-line, and he wrenched on it in an attempt to finish Almarwai.
Sousa couldn’t get the finish and Almarwai pummeled his legs inside to get back on the attack himself, prompting Sousa to disengage to stay safe. Sousa went back to passing and he was able to keep Almarwai under pressure for a while, before latching on to an armbar in transition. Sousa got a decent amount of pressure on it but he couldn’t finish before Almarwai managed to free his elbow and escape. Sousa went back to knee-slice passing and he dived on another armbar attempt when he saw it, bailing early this time to try to secure the pass instead.
Almarwai turtled to prevent the pass and Sousa was able to take his back with one hook in, frantically trying to secure the position. He couldn’t quite manage it so he switched to using a kimura grip to force Almarwai to turn, setting up a triangle choke in the process. Almarwai connected his hands to keep himself safe but it was only a matter of time before Sousa was able to break his grips and finish the armbar. Although that was the only grappling match that ONE Championship booked for ONE 166, it was just one of several memorable results coming from the event.
After a rare boxing match in the next fight, Arjhan Bhullar was disqualified from his MMA fight with Amir Aliakbari for timidity when he kept backing away from his opponent late in the final round. That’s when the titles start to come out, and first up was a wild end to the strawweight title-fight between Jarred Brooks and Joshua Pacio. Brooks spiked Pacio on his head after less than a minute of action and was actually disqualified from the fight as a result, with Pacio becoming the new strawweight world champion. The final two title-fights were not quite as unpredictable as that one, with Tang Kai and Anatoly Malykhin both becoming the new champions in their respective divisions.
ONE 166 Full Results
Anatoly Malykhin defeats Reinier de Ridder via TKO – Retirement (Round 3, 1:16)
Malykhin becomes the ONE middleweight MMA world champion
Tang Kai defeats Thanh Le via TKO – Punches (Round 3, 4:48)
Kai becomes the undisputed ONE featherweight MMA world champion
Joshua Pacio defeats Jarred Brooks via Disqualification – Illegal Slam (Round 1, 0:56)
Pacio becomes the ONE strawweight MMA world champion
Amir Aliakbari defeats Arjan Bhullar via Disqualification – Timidity (Round 3, 4:50)
Mehdi Zatout defeats Zuhayr Al-Qahtani via Decision – Unanimous (Round 3, 3:00)
Vladimir Kuzmin defeats Zafer Savik via Decision – Unanimous (Round 3, 3:00)
Cleber Sousa defeats Osamah Almarwai via Submission – Triangle Armbar (Round 1, 5:31)
Ali Saldoev defeats Zakaria El Jamari via KO – Punches (Round 2, 0:51)
Shinji Suzuki defeats Han Zihao via Decision – Unanimous (Round 3, 3:00)
Keito Yamakita defeats Jeremy Miado via Submission – Bulldog Choke (Round 1, 4:04)
The full ONE 166 event replay, including all of the above results, is available to watch on the official YouTube channel of Sky Sports:
