ICYMI: There were 3 wild moments at ONE 166
- ONE 166 took place on Friday morning and it was wild to say the least
- The card had 2 back-to-back DQs and the CEO was pissed
- But there were good moments too
By Amy Kaplan
Chatri Sityodtong threw Arjan Bhullar completely under the bus
Chatri says he was ‘deeply let down by Arjan Bhullar’ and that ‘India will no longer look at him as a hero.’ 😳#ONE166 pic.twitter.com/ixtuPUYJKQ
— ONE Championship on SCMP (@scmpmartialarts) March 1, 2024
As we covered earlier, former champion Arjan Bhullar was disqualified after three warnings about lack of engagement. In the post-fight press conference, ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong took the opportunity to rip him a new one.
"There's just no excuse," he said. "What Arjan did is unacceptable at ONE Championship. That's the first time in the history of the company of the organization that we've ever issued a red card on timidity. The first time ever."
He continued, "He didn't want to fight. And if you don't want to fight, why are you a professional fighter? And you definitely don't belong at the top of the world, the pinnacle of martial arts. I was deeply disappointed in Arjan and I think he let down India. India will no longer look at him as a hero."
Uh, ouch. That's rough.
So far, Bhullar has not spoken since the loss.
It's worth noting that Bhullar and ONE Championship have had issues in the past. He and ONE Championship had issues coming to terms on a new deal which saw Bhullar on the sidelines for years.
“I win the title, momentum, excited, all that stuff but there’s also the business end of it,” Bhullar told MMA Fighting. “So we try to renegotiate, get that championship level pay, a new deal and that took honestly way longer than I anticipated. It took us a year to actually get it pen to paper and that was very, very frustrating."