ONE Championship: Anatoly Malykhin vows ‘sleep time’ for Arjan Bhullar as heavyweight MMA title fight gets fast tracked
- Malykhin’s team predicting quick night at office after date for heavyweight MMA title fight with Bhullar is changed yet again
- ‘Different date, same goal. It’s going to be sleep time for Bhullar, hard and fast. We are ready every day of the week,’ coach John Hutchinson says
Anatoly Malykhin’s team are predicting a quick night at the office after the date for ONE Championship’s heavyweight MMA title unification grudge match with Arjan Bhullar was changed yet again.
Heavyweight champ Bhullar (11-1) and Malykhin (12-0) have been matched up three times already since the Russian won the interim title in January 2022, with all three dates falling through.
However the latest change has actually seen the fight fast-tracked from July 15’s Fight Night 12 card to ONE Friday Fights 22 on June 23, at the same venue in Bangkok’s famed Lumpinee Stadium.
“Different date, same goal,” Malykhin’s boxing coach John Hutchinson told the Post following the announcement of the new fight date.
“It is going to be sleep time for Bhullar, hard and fast. We are ready every day of the week. Let’s go.”
Indian-Canadian Bhullar, 37, won his title in April 2021 but has yet to defend it after a contract dispute with the Singapore-based martial arts promotion.
He was set to return against the Phuket, Thailand-based Malykhin in September 2022 in Singapore only to undergo surgery on a biceps injury.
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The pair were then scheduled for the main event of March’s Fight Night 8 card, again in Singapore, only for “broadcaster commitments” to scupper the bout once again.
They will now serve as the main event of the first portion of June 23’s card in Bangkok, on what will be a quarterly “tentpole” Friday Fights show, with the bout to take place in a ring rather than a cage.
A possible reason for the switch of date is that the fight will now be broadcast in prime time in India, where Bhullar is currently on a promotional tour and where ONE has a lucrative television deal with Star Sports.
Bangkok is one and a half hours ahead of India in terms of time zones, meaning the fight would have been broadcast there in the early morning had it headlined a Fight Night card, which are geared towards the US market where it is broadcast on Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service.
Over thelast few weeks, Bhullar has made stops at ESPN India and NBA India, as well as the Indian Premier League cricket promotion, as he gears up for what he is predicting will be an “epic” fight against Malykhin.
“The belt stays with me and my people,” he wrote in a recent Instagram post. “By any means necessary
ONE Friday Fights 22 is also set to feature the return of former ONE strawweight Muay Thai and kickboxing champ Sam-A Gaiyanghadao against Kompetch Fairtex, and a bout between veteran Muangthai Pk. Saenchai and highly rated prospect Nico Carrillo.
