After three straight weeks of incredible action inside the ONE cage and ring, the talking point the last week has moved away from the fights and instead towards the decision to overturn the Petchmorakot Petchyindee vs Giorgio Petrosyan bout, which took place last week at ONE: Enter The Dragon.

After reviewing the ONE Featherweight Kickboxing World Grand Prix quarterfinal, ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong, announced in the week that the result would be overturned to a no contest and that there would be a rematch.

Soon after the announcement, Petchmorakot’s manager Boat Yindee made an announcement of his own, that he and Petchmorakot had decided that they would withdraw from the Grand Prix. You can see both Sityodtong’s and Yindee’s statements here and here.

There has also be some confusion as to the exact reason why the result was overturned, with many fans thinking it was related to the three second clinch rule. However, Sityodtong has now released another statement on Facebook, citing the exact reason why the decision was made.

“Due to the spread of misinformation, I am addressing the no contest ruling again by the ONE Competition Committee of the bout between Giorgio Petrosyan and Petchmorrakot Petchyindeeacademy.

1) The no contest ruling has nothing to do with the 3 seconds or 5 seconds clinch rule. It has to do with the difference between Muay Thai and Kickboxing as it pertains to clinch rules.

2) In Muay Thai, the clinch is allowed for BOTH defensive and offensive purposes. In K1 (and ONE), the clinch is ONLY allowed for offensive purposes.

3) In ONE Kickboxing (based on modified K1 rules), the clinch is ONLY allowed for offensive aggression with strikes. It is not allowed for the defensive stifling of an opponent’s attack. It is not allowed for stalling, tying up an opponent, or holding. It is also not allowed directly after an attack as a defensive technique. Under ONE rules, the clinch is ONLY allowed for offensive aggression with strikes.

4) For further clarification, you can visit the K1 wikipedia page and read the fouls section. You will see that “fighting in a passive manner (without attacking), including continuous holding and clinching” is a foul under K1 rules.

5) This particular bout had over 20+ clinches (and many were either defensive to stifle an attack and/or without any strikes). To the referee’s credit, he did give warnings for the wrong usage of the clinch during the bout. However, he failed to control the illegal clinches in an adequate manner. After multiple repeated infractions of the ONE clinch rules, the referee failed to deduct points, and/or issue a yellow or red card.

6) To be clear, I know that Petchmorrakot Petchyindee is a good man with a good heart. I personally do not believe that he was trying to fight dirty. I think that Petchmorrakot did not understand the clinch rules of K1 or ONE Kickboxing. Despite being a world champion striker, he is quite new to kickboxing. Petchmorrakot was simply doing what he knows best with the clinch (under Muay Thai rules) because he is a Muay Thai World Champion.

7) Under Muay Thai rules, Petchmorrakot Petchyindee won the fight.

8) Under ONE (or K1) Kickboxing rules, Giorgio Petrosyan won the fight.

9) Given the massive confusion and multiple infractions, the only fair thing for all parties was for the ONE Competition Committee to issue a no contest after an official review. The other option would have been to reverse the win into a loss, but it would have been unfair to do so in this particular case.

10) It is unfortunate that some fans jumped the gun and assumed the illegal clinches had to do with the 3 or 5 second clock. To reiterate, the no contest ruling had nothing to do with 3 or 5 seconds. The illegal clinches stem from the difference in rules between Muay Thai and K1 (or ONE) Kickboxing at it pertains to the clinch.

For the rematch, both parties will be briefed in detail again on the ONE Kickboxing rules, and a new referee will oversee the bout.

A few days before the four Grand Prix quarterfinals all went down at ONE: Enter The Dragon, Sityodtong announced that the winner of the tournament would win $1 million.

At this moment, it is not known whether Petchmorakot is prepared to face Petrosyan again.

See also:

Sage Northcutt Update, Cosmo Alexandre Hits Out At Fans Hating On Him