Rifdean Masdor can no longer win the ONE Atomweight Muay Thai World Title he came to Tokyo to take from Nadaka. ONE Championship announced on X on Friday that Rifdean failed both the weight check and the hydration test ahead of ONE SAMURAI 4. Before any catchweight contest with Nadaka can even be negotiated, he has to produce a hydrated sample. If the fight happens, the belt stays on Nadaka’s side of the ledger no matter what Rifdean does in the ring.
He had company. About half an hour later, a second ONE post confirmed that Rukiya Anpo had also failed weight and hydration, and that Luo Chao had missed weight. The promotion said each of them must clear hydration before talks with their opponents can start. Luo’s miss is the reason the Bangkok Post reported that his bout with Marat Grigorian is now in doubt. Yahoo Sports counted three fights affected by the weigh-ins and hydration testing.
Anpo’s version of events is the strangest. According to a clip shared by the Japanese account @FightsMemory, his first attempt failed on hydration only. On the second attempt he failed both hydration and the scale. On camera he looked baffled and said, “ほんまに意味わからん。尿比重上がってるってことですよね？水飲んで…” In plain terms, he said he had no idea what was going on, asked whether it meant his urine specific gravity had gone up, and pointed out that he had been drinking water.
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Shinya Aoki was not having it. He quoted the clip with “んなわけないだろ。ヨカタ。” That’s a curt brush-off, and it ends with yokata, the old Japanese fight-world slang for a clueless outsider. Other Japanese fans sounded more worried than angry. Keinosuke asked on X what had happened to Anpo, writing “安保さんどうした、、、”
This is the risk ONE built into its system on purpose. Hydration testing means a fighter who drained himself to hit the number can still fail, and fighters who look fine on the scale can still lose their bout. All three affected fighters now depend on the testing staff before anyone talks about catchweight figures, and their opponents decide whether to accept. The sources don’t say where any of those talks stand. ONE’s last word was to watch its socials for updates.
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The Rifdean miss hurts the most. Title fights are what make a card like this one matter, and Nadaka now walks out tomorrow to defend nothing, against a man who can’t lift the belt even with a perfect performance. Anpo’s double failure is the one I can’t make sense of. Failing hydration once is a bad morning. Failing the scale as well on the retest means something in his cut went wrong in a way he couldn’t explain on camera, and Aoki’s sneer won’t be the last one he gets if Saturday falls apart.
ONE SAMURAI 4 goes Saturday, October 17 at 3:30 p.m. JST (2:30 a.m. ET), live on U-NEXT in Japan, assuming there’s a full card left to air.
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