Superlek has lost his ONE Championship bantamweight Muay Thai title on the scale after failing to pass hydration at Saturday’s official ONE 172 weigh-ins.
“The Kicking Machine”, who also holds ONE’s flyweight kickboxing title, was narrowly over the threshold on two attempts at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Shinjuku.
He returned 45 minutes after the weigh-ins concluded to give a hydrated sample and came in at 146.25lbs. He can now negotiate a catchweight fight with interim bantamweight Muay Thai champ Nabil Anane, which is likely to be contested over three rounds instead of five.
It is another major miss for the 29-year-old, who also failed to pass hydration for his September 2023 Muay Thai title fight against Rodtang Jitmuangnon, as well as a grand prix final against Panpayak Jitmuangnon in December 2022.
It is unclear if Nabil will now be promoted to divisional champion, with the pair having been set to unify their titles inside Tokyo’s Saitama Super Arena on Sunday. No title will be on the line now, however.
Thai-Algerian 20-year-old Nabil passed hydration and made weight with no issues earlier in the morning, while the other four title fights on the card all held together.
More importantly, so too did the main event, with Rodtang letting out a huge sigh of relief after comfortably passing, under the guidance of his new nutritionist, Peter Miller of Condition Nutrition.
“Absolutely delighted he made weight,” an emotional Miller told the Bangkok Post. “All week I was very confident he was going to make it.
“He woke up with very little weight to lose and we even had a game of FIFA before the weigh-ins. Easy work.”
Japanese icon Takeru Segawa was first up to the scales and had no issues, with their five round kickboxing super fight made official.
Thailand’s Suriyanlek and Japan’s Takeharu Ogawa also failed to pass hydration for their respective fights – a 132lbs catchweight Muay Thai bout with Ryusei, and a lightweight MMA clash with Adrian Lee.
Marat Grigorian did not give a sample during the official three-hour window, but returned after to pass, and weighed in at 155.75lbs. The former title challenger can now negotiate a catchweight with Kaito Ono, whom he was set to face in a featherweight kickboxing bout.
Rak Erawan, Shimon Yoshinari and Zakaria El Jamari also all failed to pass hydration on their first attempts, but came back to make their fights official.
Miller had five other fighters on the card, and they all made weight and passed hydration with no issues.
One of them, Jonathan Di Bella, will face Sam-A Gaiyanghadao for the interim strawweight kickboxing title.
Two of Miller’s other charges, Thai champion Phetjeeja and Japanese challenger Kana Morimoto, will fight for the atomweight kickboxing title.
Tawanchai PK Saenchai and Masaaki Noiri’s ONE interim featherweight kickboxing title fight will also go ahead as planned – as does the clash for the vacant ONE flyweight MMA title between Adriano Moraes and Yuya Wakamatsu.