ONE 166 is scheduled for March 1st, 2024 and a flyweight grappling match between Osamah Almarwai and Cleber Sousa is one of the matches that has been announced. Both men are top competitors in the lightest divisions of the sport and they actually both have a common recent opponent at ONE Championship too. They have both stood in the way of Mikey Musumeci as he has built up his impressive resume as the flyweight submission grappling world champion at ONE Championship.
Sousa was actually the man that Musumeci beat in order to become the promotion’s first submission grappling world champion just a little over a year ago. Musumeci had only competed for ONE Championship once before at that point and Sousa is still one of only two people that he hasn’t been able to submit in his run. Since he unsuccessfully challenged for the vacant title, Sousa has managed to reach the podium at a number of major events like the IBJJF World Championship and the IBJJF South American Championship.
Almarwai actually crossed paths with Musumeci a little later in his career, and he was the second person to challenge him for the title. His title-shot came just a few months ago at ONE Fight Night 10, although he was eventually submitted by Musumeci after weathering a relentless storm of submission attempts. Almarwai hasn’t managed to win a match since then, which is a shame considering the fact that he came into that title-shot as the reigning IBJJF No Gi World Champion. The plans that ONE Championship have for their divisions are never clear, and there’s a chance that this match might have been booked in order to propel one of these men into a rematch with Musumeci with a win.
Cleber Sousa announced the news that he would be facing Osamah Almarwai at ONE 166 in a recent post to his official Instagram account: