Hussein Salem Becomes Sixth MENA Star at ONE Championship Event ONE 171: Qatar

Casablanca – ONE Championship has announced the last remaining bout for its upcoming event ONE 171: Qatar, featuring Iraq’s Hussein Salem. 

Salem joins a list of top athletes from the MENA region including Morocco’s Ilias Ennahachi, UAE’s Zayed Alkatheeri, Kuwait’s Jarrah Al Hazza, and Turkish MMA duo Dagi Arslanaliev and Shamil Erdogan. 

Salem, who is known in the region for competing at MMA organization UAE Warriors, will face Italy’s Walter Cogliandro in a featherweight MMA bout inside the Lusail Sports Arena. The 32-year-old Iraqi faces a difficult test against the Italian who owns wins against UFC veterans Mark Striegl and Ali AlQaisi. 

The action-packed event will see former ONE Flyweight Kickboxing world champion Ilias Ennahachi clash with Thai veteran Petchtanong Petchfergus in a bout that could decide the next challenger for the ONE Bantamweight Kickboxing world championship. In the same event, Jonathan Haggerty will defend his gold against first-ranked challenger and Chinese veteran Wei Rui. 

While Ennahachi owns a clean 5-0 record at ONE Championship, including a win against current two-sport champion Superlek Kiatmoo9, the following two competitors will face off in a Flyweight Submission Grappling contest: Zayed Alkatheeri, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation (IBJJF) Pan American black belt gold medalist from the UAE, and Jarrah Al Hazza from Kuwait.

Turkish star Dagi Arslanaliev returns to face Croatia’s Roberto Soldic in a highly anticipated welterweight MMA. Meanwhile, Shamil Erdogan hopes to guarantee a shot at the ONE Middleweight MMA world title with another win against former two-division MMA world champion Aung La N Sang in an exciting rematch.  

ONE 171: Qatar kicks off at 3 p.m. WET on Thursday, February 20. The show’s main event will witness a third and decisive clash between world champion Joshua Pacio and interim titleholder Jarred Brooks for the ONE Strawweight MMA world title. The pair’s last meeting in ONE Championship’s Qatar last March ended in a DQ in favor of the Filipino champion.