Ben Askren title fight scratched from ONE Championship event

ONE Championship had been promoting two title fights for their "Pride of Lions" card this weekend. After a debacle on the scales, neither bout ended up being on the line. And the most anticipated fight, a bout between Ben Askren and Luis Santos, didn't happen at all.

Askren and Santos were set to rematch after a No Contest earlier this year. But Santos ended up coming in at 172 pounds, two pounds over the welterweight championship fight limit. Askren said he would still take on Santos in a non-title fight if he could weigh in at 190 pounds at 1pm on the day of the card. That offer was apparently agreed to at first, but Santos didn't make that either. This led to a lot of talk, especially from ONE CEO Victor Cui and from Santos himself:

I'm disgusted. Sapo fails to make weight then despite Askren offering a fight at 190lbs, Sapo still refuses. Completely unprofessional #ONE

— Victor Cui (@victoronefc) November 13, 2015

@MMAjunkieGeorge I don't know. I think that maybe Sapo is just scared to fight Askren

— Victor Cui (@victoronefc) November 13, 2015

Santos told MMA Fighting that Askren was "an idiot" and used the same line Cui did, saying that Askren was scared to fight him.

For his part, Askren told MMA Fighting he was still getting paid his purse for the bout. He also posted an explanation video on his Facebook fan page. In that video, he says that Sapo was 4 to 4.5 pounds overweight on his first try on the scale (which he showed up 15 minutes late to). After three hours, he got down to 2.2 pounds over and stopped. Askren said he'd still fight him in a non-title fight, but asked for Santos to be 185 on a fight-day weigh-in, which they initially agreed to, but then said he couldn't make it. Askren then changed it to 190, which Sapo at first turned down but eventually agreed to.

After watching Santos eat a long breakfast, Askren was told that Santos was being taken to the hospital. He states that Sapo repeatedly asked for an IV, but was denied, and that he passed all of his medical tests. He showed up back  to the venue at 1:30 (the weigh-in was supposed to be at 1), and he was around 193 to 193.5. At that point, Santos refused to cut to 190. Askren says that "allegedly", Santos went back to the hospital at that point and got an IV.

In addition to all that, a bout that was advertised as a strawweight title fight ended up being a non-title catchweight fight in the main event. Challenger Yago Bryan Farias de Morais also missed weight, but Dejdamrong Sor Amnuaysirichoke agreed to a non-title fight. He won that by unanimous decision.