ONE 166 results, video: Arjan Bhullar disqualified for timidity, champ Jarred Brooks loses belt after illegal slam

Two key fights ended in frustrating disqualifications at Friday’s ONE Championship show in Qatar.

Arjan Bhullar, a former UFC fighter and ONE heavyweight champion, was looking to rebound from a title loss to Anatoly Malykhin as he took on knockout machine Amir Aliakbari at ONE 166, but neither fighter engaged much in the opening round.

Veteran referee Herb Dean had to stop the bout and threaten both Bhullar and Aliakbari with a yellow card for not engaging, but the real punishment only came later. Aliakbari tried to attack more in the following rounds, but Bhullar did not engage.

Dern dinged Bhullar with a second yellow card, which also meant a 20 percent fine to his purse, but that was still not enough to force him to go on the offensive. A red card was then shown to Bhullar with 45 seconds left in the final round, awarding Aliakbari with a DQ victory.

Aliakbari, 14-3 in MMA, is now riding a four-fight winning streak. The Iranian talent finished Mauro Cerilli, Brandon Vera and Dustin Joynson in previous bouts.

Next on the card was a strawweight championship bout between champion Jarred Brooks and challenger Joshua Pacio, and it ended in under a minute. Pacio landed a leg kick and Brooks immediately circled him and went for a slam, dropping Pacio head-first on the ground, a move considered illegal under ONE rules. Brooks was disqualified and Pacio was crowned the new champion.

Watch the sequence below.

A championship unification bout between featherweight titleholders Tang Kai and Thanh Le was going the same direction in the co-main event after both fighters were shown yellow cards for timidity, but Kai closed the show with a vicious knockout with seconds left in the third round. Kai was awarded a $50,000 performance bonus after the victory.

In the early portion of the card, Japanese wrestler Keito Yamakita tapped out Jeremy Miado with bulldog choke (watch here). Check the complete ONE 166 results below.

Reinier de Ridder vs. Anatoly Malykhin
Tang Kai def. Thanh Le via TKO (punches) — Round 3, 4:48
Joshua Pacio def. Jarred Brooks via disqualification (illegal slam) — Round 1, 0:56
Amir Aliakbari def. Arjan Bhullar via disqualification (inactivity) — Round 3, 4:15
Mehdi Zatout def. Zuhayr Al-Qahtani via unanimous decision [boxing]
Vladimir Kuzmin def. Zafer Sayik via unanimous decision [muay thai]
Cleber Sousa def. Osamah Almarwai via submission (armbar) — 5:31 [grappling]
Ali Saldoev def. Zakaria El Jamari via KO — Round 2, 0:51 [muay thai]
Shinji Suzuki def. Han Zi Hao via unanimous Decisiod [muay thai]
Keito Yamakita def. Jeremy Miado via submission (bulldog choke) — Round 1, 4:04