It would have been a mistake" - Kirill Grishenko explains long absence after losing to 'Buchecha'

Kirill Grishenko is ready to show fans and the rest of the heavyweight division what he has been working on when he returns at ONE Fight Night 23.

It has been nearly two years since the last time that the Belarusian heavyweight stepped inside the Circle to face the top contenders in his weight class.

After a strong start to life in the promotion with back-to-back wins, he now finds himself coming into his return following consecutive defeats.

There is obviously no shame in losing to the current world champion Anatoly Malykhin or being submitted by Marcus 'Buchecha' Almeida.

However, after these setbacks, Grishenko knew that he needed to take some time away in order to really work on his skillset before looking to get back on track.

He may have been away from the Circle in this time but that doesn't mean that he hasn't been working hard to come back stronger.

This is exactly the statement that he hopes to make at ONE Fight Night 23 when he faces knockout artist Kang Ji Won at the iconic Lumpinee Boxing Stadium.

Grishenko spoke in an interview with ONE Championship about how the break was intentional:

"I had a fairly long break from professional MMA competition, and it would have been a mistake to jump right back into a fight."

Kirill Grishenko is still early in his MMA journey

It can be easy to forget that the 32-year-old Kirill Grishenko is still very early on in his MMA career.

The former wrestling specialist only made the jump to compete in this dangerous ruleset four years ago, making his ONE Championship debut the following year when he took on Oumar 'Reug Reug' Kane.

As a result, he is still constantly learning and adding new facets to his game which could be a crucial factor on July 5 when he looks to bounce back.

ONE Fight Night 23 will air live and free at US prime time and is free to watch for North American viewers with an active Prime Video subscription.