“He’s not a professional, professionals don’t do this” - Anatoly Malykhin blasts Arjan Bhullar for botched heavyweight showdown

Heavy-handed Russian heavyweight Anatoly Malykhin has had enough of Arjan Bhullar’s meandering, recently blasting the ONE heavyweight world champion for not signing the contract to finalize their upcoming fight.

Anatoly Malykhin and Arjan Bhullar were slated to meet at the end of the year, following the Russian’s impressive first-round knockout of Amir Aliakbari back in September, which earned him a shot at the heavyweight belt.

Unfortunately, Bhullar didn’t seem to be ready to fight so soon and wanted more time to prepare. This rubbed Anatoly Malykhin the wrong way, and now he’s not happy.

Speaking to ONE Championship in a recent interview, Anatoly Malykhin went off on the ONE heavyweight champ and doubled down, calling him a ‘chicken'.

“If you’re the champion, in the best league in the world, that’s an entirely different responsibility. You have to be prepared to prove that you’re the best. If you’re not prepared to prove that you’re the best, if you’re rescheduling fights – from my understanding, he has no injuries, no illness – he's just rescheduling fights because he said I’m not ready at this date, even though everyone knew about this fight in advance. And he knew that, when I beat Amir Aliakbari, that I would be the next contender,” Anatoly Malykhin said.

“He should’ve started preparing right then. He’s not a professional. Professionals don’t do this. If he manages to gain the courage in January, he’ll get payback for his escape from the chicken coop.”

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Anatoly Malykhin is ready for his world title shot

Despite the delay, Anatoly Malykhin is more than ready to step inside the Circle at a moment’s notice, or whenever Bhullar becomes available. The Russian star says he’s in fight shape, and has remained so ever since his victory over Aliakbari a couple of months ago.

“I mean we stay in touch with the ONE Championship matchmakers, and Mr.Chatri himself, from my understanding, after my fight, said that our fight would be on 3 December. We started camp and preparation, and I’ve been training for a long time.”

“Camp was very long for me. My body was under a lot of stress for a long period of time, and I felt great. I was doing hard sparring 5x5, was in great shape, and my wife, my manager, was in touch with the matchmakers. And we understood that the fight wasn’t happening, and that Arjan, from our understanding, wasn’t signing the contract.”

“And that’s it, really. We decided to show him that as a fighter, you’re ready to fight any time.”

Things continue to heat up between Anatoly Malykhin and Arjan Bhullar, making it all the more interesting for when they do finally lock horns in the Circle.