Anatoly Malykhin wants to end Arjan Bhullar in the opening round

While the buildup for this fight lasted for months, Anatoly Malykhin wants the match itself to last as quickly as possible.

Malykhin, the reigning ONE light heavyweight and interim heavyweight world champion, will take on ONE heavyweight world champion Arjan Bhullar for the undisputed ONE heavyweight world title at ONE Friday Fights 22.

The colossal match takes place on June 23 at the iconic Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok.

Ahead of the world title unification bout, Malykhin talked with South China Morning Post during the ONE Fight Night 11 weekend about his upcoming bout against ‘Singh’.

‘Sladkiy’ said that he can easily put on a five-rounder, but he’d rather finish Bhullar in the very first round.

“I'm ready to stand for all five rounds. But I will be looking for chances of knockout every single second. I will try to finish this fight in the first round.”

---

Anatoly Malykhin is in for a heated war against Arjan Bhullar

Arjan Bhullar became the ONE heavyweight world champion when he knocked out inaugural world champion Brandon Vera in May 2021 for the strap.

The Indian star, however, has yet to defend his gold following injuries. In his absence, Anatoly Malykhin emerged as the interim world champion when he bludgeoned Kirill Grishenko in February 2022.

Malykhin even collected a second world title after he became the interim heavyweight world champion. The Russian knockout machine achieved double-champ status when he knocked out Reinier de Ridder for the ONE light heavyweight world title in December 2022 at ONE on Prime Video 5.

A unification bout was set for these two behemoths but it suffered a couple of cancellations due to injuries and broadcasting commitments.

Nevertheless, the two rivals are less than two weeks away from their feud-ending matchup in Bangkok.