What’s the Situation?
ONE Championship (ONE) held on March 23 is
in the midst of controversy. It all started at the press conference after the
event, when ONE representative Chatri Sityodtong accused Kaito of declining to
participate in the Kainin-Gregorian fight that was scheduled to take place.
Gregorian joined in on Chatri Sityodtong’s comments and condemned Kaijin. In
response, Kaito and his organization, Shoot Boxing Associaton, issued a letter
of protest, to which ONE issued an official statement.
I will examine this situation here. The ONE
side admitted that Gregorian made a mistake in the weigh-in. Kaito is just
being accused of doing a catch weight, which is not written in the rules. This
is what they said.
Shooto Boxing Association’s protest
statement
https://shootboxing.org/news/32884/
ONE’s official statement can be found here
https://www.onefc.com/jp/press-releases/one-championship-%e5%85%ac%e5%bc%8f%e5%a3%b0%e6%98%8e%ef%bc%9a%e6%b5%b7%e4%ba%ba%e9%81%b8%
e6%89%8b%e3%81%ab%e9%96%a2%e3%81%99%e3%82%8b%e7%99%ba%e8%a8%80%e3%81%ab%e3%81%a4%e3%81%84%e3%81%a6/
Gregorian’s statement
https://www.instagram.com/p/DHoxTDvMKvd/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
The official statement is an apology for
Representative Chatri’s remarks, not for the situation. It is merely saying
that the statements are disturbing. In response, the Kaito side is making
further protests.
What’s the problem?
The ONE side and the Kaito side are not on
the same page on the issue.
ONE side has no problem with the weigh-in
and hydration test. It is left to them to decide if they want to do a catch
weight. However, from the part of representative Chatri’s statement, “In major
organizations around the world…” and “of course,” he was aware that it is
natural to do it with catch-weights.
On the other hand, the Kaito side was
disqualified in the first place because they did not show up at the official
weigh-in time. The Gregorian’s hydration test was not seen by a third party and
could not be considered official, I suppose.
Comparing these two points of view, their
perspectives do not mesh at all.
In conclusion, Gregorian is wrong.
The reason why they don’t mesh would be
whether or not the hydration test to be performed after the official weigh-in
is a problem. So, let’s look at ONE’s rule book.
ONE’s rule book
https://www.onefc.com/martial-arts/
The ONE rulebook states that if the athlete
fails the hydration weigh-in, he or she may re-weigh in (if the athlete passes
hydration but fails to make weight, then he or she may try again within the
allotted (If the athlete passes hydration but fails to make weight, then he or
she may try again within the allotted 3-hour testing window.)
The problem here is time. Actually, the
rulebook does not say that you have to come to the official weigh-in. It only
says that all athletes will participate in a combined hydration test and
weigh-in 24 to 48 hours before the event.). It is not clear from the rulebook
what the prescribed time refers to, nor does it say that they must come to the
official weigh-in. Nevertheless, the test will be conducted in front of a
medical professional (hydration will be checked through a urine specific
gravity test in which every athlete will submit a urine sample under the the
supervision of a medical technician), so it would be natural to show it at the
official weigh-in or in front of the competition officials.
The insta-statement says that Gregorian did
the test 30 minutes after the official weigh-in, which would mean that it was
done at least at 2:00 p.m., according to the text that said it was communicated
to Kaito at 2:00 p.m.
The question here is when the rulebook says
24 hours in advance. The Shoot Boxing side has set 11:00 to 13:00 as the
stipulated time. Gregorian’s side would have considered 14:00 to be within the
time limit. There is a discrepancy here.
In fact, ONE also considered the Shoot
Boxing side to be correct on this point, as stated in a March 25 statement by
Chatori: “Grigorian passed the hydration test after the time limit and was 350
grams overweight.” It reads.
If the athlete fails the weigh-in and
hydration test, he or she must pass it within three hours (If the athlete
passes hydration but fails to make weight, then he or she may try again within
the (If the athlete passes hydration but fails to make weight, then he or she
may try again within the allotted 3-hour testing window.)
In this case, it is not clear when the time
limit began, but since the negotiations were conducted at a catch-weight, it is
likely that the athlete saw that the three hours after the time limit had been
met.
Nevertheless, this does not change the fact
that the time limit was not met at this point.
A further issue is how the hydration test
was conducted. According to the protest statement by Chute Boxing, the Japanese
medical personnel had left the room, and it is not clear whether the “under the
supervision of a medical technician” in the rule book was met. There may have
been non-Japanese medical personnel present, but that remains unclear.
Does he have to comply with a
catch-weight? If so, it should be a rule.
There is one thing that is written in the
rulebook and apparently ignored. That is the catch-weight issue. Mr. Chatri’s
March 25 statement is nuanced in that it should be done with catch weights.
However, what the rulebook says is that
catchweights can be negotiated. In martial arts sports, weight is an important
factor. That’s why there are classifications; OK if it’s one pound doesn’t
work. Frankly, nowhere does Representative Chatri or Gregorian have the right
to criticize Kaito.
rights in the rule book. They can negotiate, but nowhere does it say they will
do it at a catch weight. There is no logic to the theory that “in world
organizations, one pound is a catch weight.” If Mr. Chatri really believes
that, he should put it in the rule book. As long as it is in the rules, it is
not up to the people around him.sion)