Anatoly Malykhin confident he’ll get undisputed heavyweight throne

Anatoly Malykhin is counting down the days until his highly-anticipated world title unification fight against Arjan Bhullar.

On June 23, Malykhin vs. Bhullar is scheduled to take place at ONE Friday Fights 22 with the undisputed ONE heavyweight world title on the line. The bout has been postponed twice due to an injury and broadcasting issues.

With less than two weeks until showtime, Malykhin posted a photo on Twitter of himself holding ONE gold. He captioned the picture:

“12 days, history time, victory time, belt time”

In May 2021, Arjan Bhullar became the ONE heavyweight MMA world champion with a second-round TKO against Brandon Vera. Since then, Bhullar has been inactive due to several severe injuries and a contract negotiation with the promotion. ‘Singh’ now looks to silence the doubters by taking out one of the most dangerous fighters on the ONE roster.

Anatoly Malykhin became the interim heavyweight world title holder in February 2022, while Bhullar was sidelined. Ten months later, Malykhin decided to stay active and fight Reinier de Ridder for the ONE light heavyweight world title at ONE on Prime Video 5. ‘Sladkiy’ knocked out de Ridder in the first round to become a two-division world champion.

The heavyweight world title unification bout on June 23 features a stylistic clash between a knockout artist and a dominant grappler. Malykhin has finished all four of his ONE Championship bouts by KO/TKO. Meanwhile, Bhullar is a former NAIA collegiate wrestler with medals in various freestyle wrestling competitions.

Arjan Bhullar vs. Anatoly Malykhin will headline the first part of ONE Friday Fights 22, which goes down inside the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.