Aung La N Sang and Ilias Ennahachi were the two big casualties at the ONE 171 weigh-ins on Wednesday morning in Doha.
ONE Championship returns to Qatar with a stacked card on Thursday at the Lusail Sports Arena, which mostly stayed intact after a three-hour official testing window at the Intercontinental City Hotel.
But former two-division MMA champion N Sang failed two attempts at passing hydration for his middleweight rematch with Shamil Erdogan.
The Turkish fighter had no problems on the scales at the Intercontinental City Hotel, after missing hydration and weight badly for their first fight in Denver last September.
Myanmar’s N Sang had also failed his checks for the second-round TKO loss at ONE 168, though this time the 38-year-old will have to give up 20 percent of his purse.
A despondent “Burmese Python” told the Bangkok Post he was certain he was going to pass, having been close to the weight on Tuesday.
N Sang was left needing to give a hydrated sample before being able to negotiate a catchweight with Erdogan, who is likely to accept.
Morocco’s Ennahachi managed to pass hydration on his second trip to the scales, but weighed in at 153 pounds – eight pounds over the limit for the bantamweight division, and more crucially, above the catchweight limit.
The former ONE flyweight kickboxing champ was left needing to drop another 1.5 pounds – while giving another hydrated sample – before he could even negotiate a catchweight with his opponent Petchtanong.
Thailand’s former ONE bantamweight kickboxing champ Petchtanong had no issues this time, having been left hospitalised two months ago when he failed to pass hydration for his fight with Nabil Anane – which was then cancelled.
The only other blip on Wednesday came from Argentina’s Nicolas Vigna, who failed to pass hydration twice for his lightweight MMA fight with Kade Ruotolo.
ONE’s lightweight submission grappling champion is likely to accept a catchweight however, as he looks to go 3-0 in mixed martial arts.
All other fights on the card will proceed at their contracted weights.