One of the biggest cards of the year for ONE Championship goes down this weekend with ONE 169 on November 8 but things haven't been plain sailing in the lead up to fight night. The weigh-ins took place earlier today in Bangkok, Thailand where one of the promotion's biggest names was stripped of his title.
Rodtang Jitmuangnon has been able to transcend Muay Thai and become a global combat sports star via his exciting fighting style that has earned him the nickname of "The Iron Man." The long reigning ONE flyweight Muay Thai world champion was set to be in action at Lumpinee Stadium this Friday in one of three title fights that was originally set to take place in Atlanta before the card was moved.
His scheduled rematch with Jacob Smith will now take place at a catchweight after Rodtang failed to make weight and was stripped of the belt on the scales. As a result, Smith will be the only one who is able to win the title.
Early on in the promotion's recently changed weigh-in process, he missed weight by just half a pound but had failed to pass his hydration test which is in place to prevent fighters from cutting lots of weight before their fights.
After he failed his hydration test and declined to check his weight on the scales, the elite striker still had just under an hour to hit the mark but wasn't giving off the best body language. Smith will also receive a percentage of his opponent's purse which is a big payday for him considering that the Thai star makes around 10 million baht per fight (just under $300,000).
The former champion posted the following message on social media before he was officially stripped of the title which warned fans that he was not going to make weight for the fight. Since winning the flyweight title back in 2019, this isn't the first time that he has had issues during weigh-in day.