Referee Herb Dean issued an ultra-rare red card in order to disqualify UFC veteran Arjan Bhullar earlier today (Fri., Mar. 1, 2024) at ONE 166 from inside Lusail Sports Arena in Lusail, Qatar, as the former ONE heavyweight champion offered mind-numbing inactivity during his main card clash with Amir Aliakbari.
ONE Championship is one of the only mixed martial arts (MMA) promotions to offer this card system and it works well. Other organizations allow for positions to be taken away or points to be deducted for inactivity, but ONE permits referees to hand out yellow card warnings and the rare red card if an athlete needs to be disqualified for not fighting.
That’s exactly what happened on Friday when Bhullar matched up against fellow heavyweight Aliakbari. As usual, Bhullar was calculated in his approach and offered slowed offense from the opening round. This carried over into the second round as well. Along the way, Dean gave two yellow card warnings to Bhullar to try to entice him to open up and fight.
Sadly, the Canadian fighter didn’t oblige and kept his hard-to-watch inactivity up into the third round. That prompted Dean to issue a red card and officially disqualify Bhullar from his heavyweight matchup. It’s certainly a rarity in MMA, but it seemed well-warranted in this case.
Check out the final moments of the bout below along with post-fight reaction from ONE Championship CEO, Chatri Sityodtong:
“What Arjan did is unacceptable at ONE Championship,” Sityodtong began. "This is the first time in the history of the company, the organization, that we’ve ever issued a red card on timidity. The first time ever.
“He didn’t want to fight. And if you don’t want to fight, why are you a professional fighter? You definitely don’t belong at the top of the world in pinnacle martial arts. I was deeply disappointed in Arjan, and I think he let down India. India will no longer look at him as a hero.”
Chatri is right.
The article claims he is Canadian
Arjan is not a Canadian. He never has been he never will. He is a whiny sikh Supremacist piece of shit.
He needs to just die.
Even in the fight it showed the Flag of India.
He only claims he is Canadian when he can benefit from it.
This guy is a despicable piece of shit.
I was so glad this happened to him.
Lol ended up dishing out 20 percent of his purse and then DQ.
Cannot stand this whiny imposter bitch, fuck Arjan in the neck.
Get out of my country you entitled piece of shit.
Shots Fired LOL
Maybe Justine can personally escort him back to India and then stay there himself and never come back.
That’s one use of travelling vacation tax dollars I can get behind.
Double win!
Lol yea right.
Islamic fascists…sikh Supremacists he sucks all their cocks, anybody that is inherently against Canada and our way of life Trudeau sucks them off.
He hears me disrespecting a Sikh Supremacist mutt like Arjan he will be highly offended his boy Jagoff Singh aswell
Likely close my bank accounts.
Lollll
Does the red card just include the official DQ loss? Or does it have the yellow card effect and take another 10 percent of purse aswell as the DQ?
I hope it was 30 percent of his purse instead of 20 LOL fuck that guy.
I was so glad Dana told him to fuck off with his Turban walkout
hahahaha Thats Right . Too Phunny
Yes, Chatri, and that is why he left UFC and went to ONE.
That was then this is now.
His UFC run was a snoozer filled with whining entitlement from Arjan trying to press his bullshit on us.
Do you know how bad Modi cannot stand motherfuckers like Arjan? Lol he helps get them killed over in India.
Yeah I was just saying he went to ONE because ONE is nowhere near the pinnacle of martial arts.
They don’t have 2% of the HW talent.
Fair enough.
Under this rule set though where so much more is allowed Arjan did PISS.
With knees to the head of a grounded opponent in ONE maybe Arjan would use his wrestling and try and get a finish?
Herb was great lol “I’m gonna pull it out!”
Oh yeah, I’m not defending Arjan at all. Never been a fan at all. I was laughing my ass off when he said he was gonna beat Malykhin and could have some big megafight with Ngannou at a stadium in India.
He was talking like that before the Malykhin fight because he beat a 46 year old Vera.
Arjan was trying to push for a One vs PFL fight with Ngannou. He’s very mid level(that might be too generous), but thinks very highly of himself. Hopefully this was a reality check for him about where his skills really are.
Arjan is a wrestler, that’s about it. Even at HW he isn’t that good. He seems timid and scared to fight when he is out there.