Arjan Bhullar ‘sees similarities’ in Francis Ngannou and Anatoly Malykhin

ONE heavyweight world champion ‘Singh’ Arjan Bhullar has not seen the inside of the circle since his 2021 world title-winning victory over former heavyweight king Brandon ‘The Truth’ Vera. But he will definitely be looking to unify the belts with interim titleholder ‘Sladkiy’ Anatoly Malykhin when he returns later this year.

That being said, Bhullar can’t help but compare Malykhin to another fighter on his radar – former UFC heavyweight champion Francis ‘The Predator’ Ngannou.

Speaking to MMA Fighting in a recent interview, Bhullar talked about Ngannou’s potential signing with ONE Championship. He doesn’t think ‘The Predator’ has the skills it will take to hang with him if they ever fought.

‘Singh’ said:

“He was running through everybody and that didn’t work, and he didn’t know how to adjust against Stipe [Miocic]. There was a big hole, Stipe exploited it. And then same with [Derrick] Lewis after that. He had to learn to be patient and adjust and add some kicks and all those types of things, and some grappling. I mean, the grappling won him the fight. He was zero grappling when he first lost to Stipe, and then against Stipe [in the rematch] he defended the takedown.”

Bhullar went on to say that he thinks Ngannou and Malykhin are kind of the same fighter:

“I actually see similarities in Anatoly because of that. There’s a lot of questions he hasn’t answered yet.”

Whether or not Ngannou does indeed sign with ONE Championship to make this fight possible remains to be seen. However, rumors are definitely circulating as to where ‘The Predator’ will end up.

Meanwhile, Arjan Bhullar is now scheduled to unify the ONE heavyweight world title against Anatoly Malykhin at ONE Fight Night 12 in July. As always, it’s free to watch in the United States and Canada via Amazon Prime.