Arjan Bhullar doesn’t think Anatoly Malykhin can handle the pressure: “He hasn’t been there yet”

It is safe to assume that ONE heavyweight world champion Arjan Bhullar doesn’t think too highly of Anatoly Malykhin.

The two rivals are set for a collision course at ONE Friday Fights 22 to determine who will be the undisputed ONE heavyweight world champion this Friday, June 23, at the iconic Lumpinee Boxing Stadium.

After his world title unification match, Bhullar told South China Morning Post how he views Malykhin as an opponent. The Indian star is aware of Malykhin’s incessant trash talk and did not hold anything back against the ONE light heavyweight and interim heavyweight world champion.

‘Singh’ said Malykhin has yet to struggle inside the Circle, and he plans to exploit that perceived inexperience and drag the Russian slugger into the deep waters in Bangkok.

“When it gets hard, when he's down, when he's getting busted up: what is he made of? That's when it's going to show. He hasn't been there yet.”

Malykhin has indeed never experienced getting dragged into a chess match in his ONE Championship career. ‘Sladkiy’ is 4-0 in the promotion with three of his wins ending in a first-round knockout.

The only match in Malykhin’s ONE Championship run that exceeded the first five minutes was his second-round knockout of Kirill Grishenko for the ONE interim heavyweight world title.

Bhullar, meanwhile, is 2-0 in the Circle, and his debut was a unanimous decision win over Mauro Cerilli. An accomplished amateur wrestler, Bhullar relies heavily on his fundamentals to tire his opponents out before going into a full-launch attack.

Arjan Bhullar masterfully carved out Brandon Vera in his second bout in the promotion before ending the Filipino star with relentless strikes to become the ONE heavyweight world champion in May 2021.

Watch Arjan Bhullar's entire interview below: