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Lightweight contender Dmitry Menshikov – a teammate and training partner of Artem Vakhitov – has served ONE Championship with legal papers citing the organization’s failure to fulfill its contractual obligations to him.
Via his manager and legal team, Menshikov has informed ONE that he will be entering free agency following his upcoming February 14th bout in Bangkok.
ONE offered Menshikov just a single bout in 2024, with other promised bouts not materializing.
This is despite all four of Menshikov’s bouts (3-1) in ONE ending in KO or TKO, making him one of the most crowd-pleasing fighters on the roster.
Menshikov spent most of 2024 inactive despite repeatedly notifying ONE of his availability and requesting to be booked for professional contests.
When a promised December slot did not materialize, Menshikov’s legal team determined that the promotion had failed to perform its contractual duties and wrote to ONE on the Siberian’s behalf.
“I had some great fights with ONE, but a single bout per year is not a sustainable calendar for a competitive athlete and is a clear breach of the understanding between the fighter and the organization when we entered into a promotional contract. For this reason, I will be entering free agency after the upcoming February 14th bout,” says Menshikov.
“I find it strange that all my wins are by KO or TKO, yet ONE chose to rebook the fighters I KO’d rather than myself. Maybe they were cheaper, I don’t know. It’s hard to know anything that’s going on at ONE – our attempts throughout 2024 to reach the matchmakers were met by deafening silence.
“Several fighters have left recently because of being frustrated like Sage Northcutt and Reinier de Ridder and I think that’s the best solution for me as well. My contract only has a few months left on it anyway. At this point it’s probably easier for us all to go our separate ways.”
Menshikov’s manager Andrey Busygin says, “Clearly if you sign a fighter to an exclusive contract, the intention is not for him to compete just once a year. We struggled all year to get clear answers from ONE’s matchmakers. In fact most of the time we couldn’t get an answer at all.
“When 2024 ended with just a single bout, our legal team determined that ONE had failed to perform its duties under the contract and informed ONE accordingly. We have taken this short-notice ONE bout on February 14th because Menshikov needs a fight, but after that he will be entering free agency and returning to a full competitive schedule.”
Menshikov intends to make himself available to other promotions from March 2025.
Roberto Villa is the CEO, Founder, Executive Writer, Senior Editor of FightBook MMA. Has a passion for Combat Sports and also a podcast host for Sitting Ringside. He’s also a former MMA fighter and Kickboxer.
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