ONE Championship will finally settle their heavyweight rivalry on Friday, June 23. At ONE Friday Fights 22, ONE Heavyweight World Champion Arjan Bhullar will return for the first time since winning the gold against ONE Light Heavyweight and interim Heavyweight World Champion Anatoly Malykhin. But Bhullar does not view this meeting as a unification matchup.
“First, he’s not a two-division World Champion. If I win, it will be, ‘And still…’ And if he wins, it will be, ‘And the new…’ There’s only one ONE Heavyweight World Champion. But, he’s a Light Heavyweight World Champion. I’m the World Champion of the heavyweight division, and we’re going to fight, and that’s what it is,” Bhullar told ONE.
In Bhullar’s absence, Malykhin has risen to the top of the division and has become one of the brightest stars in the sport. The unbeaten Russian has mauled his competition and has looked the part of being the best heavyweight. Nobody has been able to threaten “Sladkiy” thus far.
But Bhullar is confident that when adversity strikes, Malykhin will fold. That is why he plans to be aggressive and force the undefeated interim title holder to the limit, forcing him to answer every challenge. Bhullar believes unanswered questions are making Malykhin fool’s gold.
“He’s never been punched. He’s never been kicked. He’s never been kneed. He’s never been taken down. He’s never been backed up. He’s never been made uncomfortable. He’s never been made to fight someone else’s fight. He’s never been made to fight on his back foot. He’s never been made to go deep into a fight where he throws everything onto a guy and the guy is still there. Those are a lot of questions. And his character? I do not think it will hold up,” the reigning ONE Heavyweight World Champion said.
Malykhin has appeared supremely confident since arriving in ONE, constantly calling out Bhullar. The Canadian-Indian talent has seemed fine to take the verbal jabs to date. While he assures everyone it has not gotten under his skin, Bhullar is adamant he will make Malykhin pay on June 23.
“Let him bark. We’ll see what kind of bite he has. It’s easy to bark, and it’s easy to bite when no one is fighting you back. I’m not like anything else he’s faced. I’m going to run through him. I truly do believe that. I don’t see this going any other way,” Bhullar stated.
While the event will hit the U.S. in the morning, Bhullar is ecstatic that his title defense will air in primetime in India. As India’s first mixed martial arts World Champion, Bhullar is happy to carry the banner for the country as the heavyweight king. With the weight of a nation on his shoulders, Bhullar plans to put Malykhin away and continue the sport’s growth in the nation.
“I’m excited that fans will be able to watch in primetime. I’m a primetime-type fighter. Primetime, all eyes on us. That’s what I want, and I want to put this guy away in front of as many eyeballs as possible,” Bhullar said.
ONE Friday Fights 22 airs live from Lumpinee Boxing Stadium on June 23. The event is free on ONE’s YouTube channel. The action begins at 8:30 a.m. ET/5:30 p.m. PT.
