"I've got a target-rich environment" - Odie Delaney on ONE's ever-growing heavyweight division

Odie Delaney believes that there will be no shortage of competition in ONE Championship, especially with its ever-expanding roster.

‘The Witness’ will compete at ONE 158 on June 3, where three heavyweight MMA bouts will take place. In his second outing with the promotion, Delaney will come face-to-face with Iranian national wrestling champion Mehdi Barghi.

Ahead of his bout, Delaney spoke with Sportskeeda MMA about the level of competition he’s dealing with, both now and in the future.

Odie Delaney said:

“It’s very very exciting. You know, with this deal they just signed with Amazon, that’s just gonna really accelerate that growth and that division. It’s already an extremely tough division and just more and more guys will just keep filling it out. So yeah, I’ve got a target-rich environment, if you will.”

Catch our full interview with Delaney below:

ONE Championship’s partnership with Amazon has Delaney excited, as the platform will help him spread his message in his home country as well as the rest of the world. This opportunity is what attracted him to join the promotion, and it could also be enticing to other talented heavyweights across the globe.

As it stands now, the competition in the division is already filled with monsters. Apart from Delaney’s match with Barghi, Brazilian jiu-jitsu legend ‘Buchecha’ Marcus Almeida will also be in action against Simon Carson, while two promotional newcomers in Duke Didier and Jasur Mirzamukhamedov will battle for their place in the division.

The kickboxing clash between Guto Inocente and Rade Opacic is also featured in the card, showing the growth of talented heavyweights across ONE Championship’s roster.

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Odie Delaney has time to move up the rankings

The division is so packed now that it is currently ruled by two world champions. ONE heavyweight world champion Arjan Bhullar and ONE interim heavyweight world titleholder Anatoly Malykhin are inevitably going to clash at some point in the future, so Odie Delaney still has time to build his credibility in the division.

He started off on a good note in ONE Championship, etching his name in the record books with the fastest submission in the heavyweight division in just his first match.

Adding another impressive win will only boost his stock further and help him to become a legitimate threat to the world title once an undisputed king is crowned soon.