ONE Championship Fight Night 23 main event shakeup after weight miss; only Ok Rae Yoon can win interim MMA title
ONE Championship's plans for this weekend's ONE Fight Night 23 card took several hits at Thursday's official weigh-ins in Bangkok.
The main event at Lumpinee Stadium will now only proceed at a catchweight after Alibeg Rasulov failed multiple attempts to pass hydration for Saturday's interim lightweight MMA title fight.
Only Ok Rae Yoon, the former lightweight king, can now win the belt, should the fight go ahead.
The match was bumped up from a three-round co-main event to a five-round headliner, with a title added into the mix, after Jackie Buntan withdrew from the card's original main event just weeks out.
Buntan had been set to fight Anissa Meksen for the right to be crowned the inaugural ONE strawweight women's kickboxing champion before suffering an injury.
Four other fighters on the ONE Fight Night 23 card also either failed to pass hydration or make their contracted weights on Thursday.
Aliff Sor Dechapan was left needing to negotiate a catchweight with Ellis Barboza for their strawweight Muay Thai fight, after coming in 0.75 pounds over.
The Thai-Malaysian failed multiple hydration tests before passing late on. A wide smile ripplied across his face but quickly vanished when he stepped on the scales inside the host Best Western Wanda Hotel.
Thailand's Black Panther and Ali Saldoev both failed hydration for ther flyweight Muay Thai fight, so the bout is unlikely to be in jeopardy.
The opening fight of the card will need to be renegotiated, however, after Alexey Balyko failed hydration for his bantamweight Muay Thai bout with Stefan Korodi.
The winner of Saturday's main event was set to earn a crack at lightweight MMA champion Christian Lee, who has not fought since November 2022, following the death of his 18-year-old sister Victoria Lee the following month.
The 26-year-old Lee – who also holds the martial arts promotion's welterweight MMA title – told Sportskeeda last month there was "no need" for an interim belt in either of the divisions he reigns over as he was ready to get back in the Circle.
Should Rasulov beat Ok, it is uncertain he would earn a crack at the Hawaii-based American. A victory for South Korean 33-year-old Ok, however, would perfectly tee up a trilogy title fight – possibly for ONE 169 in Atlanta on November 8.
Ok and Lee both own a victory over each other. The South Korean stunned Lee with a controversial unanimous decision in September 2021, before the American won the rematch in August 2022 in emphatic fashion, getting a second-round TKO to reclaim his title.
They now have identical records of 17-4, but Ok told Sportskeeda he was confident of settling the trilogy in his favor. He added:
"I definitely want to fight Christian Lee again before I retire, but I also understand he and his family are going through a great hardship. For the time being, I will do whatever I can to become interim champion, and hopefully at some point he and I can face each other. But this is not my position to make commands as to when we should be fighting."
Ok revealed he thought the second fight in Singapore "would be a lot easier" but Lee took him "by surprise" with a fast start. He added:
"I beat myself up over it and have been upset about it. The second fight I really did not expect him to come out at me like that. So if we do a third fight, I will cover all corners and look to get the win."