Reinier de Ridder says Arjan Bhullar may have improved but leans toward Anatoly Malykhin winning "pretty easily"

Reinier de Ridder believes Anatoly Malykhin will take care of business on March 24 when he finally meets Arjan Bhullar for the undisputed ONE heavyweight world championship.

In an interview with the South China Morning Post, ‘The Dutch Knight’ suggested that we could see a different Arjan Bhullar come March 24, but the reigning ONE middleweight world still expects Anatoly Malykhin to get the job done with relative ease:

“We haven’t seen Bhullar in a while so maybe he’s changed a lot and got a lot better. But to be honest, I think Malykhin takes this one pretty easily.”

Bhullar has not been in action since he captured the ONE heavyweight crown with a second-round knockout of recently retired heavyweight legend Brandon Vera at ONE: Dangal in May 2021. Opting to sit out during renegotiations with the promotion, ONE introduced an interim heavyweight title in February 2022.

Anatoly Malykhin captured the interim strap with his own second-round KO of Kirill Grishenko. Expected to unify the title with Bhullar at ONE 161, Bhullar withdrew due to an injury. Nearly two years removed from capturing the title, Bhullar will finally step back into the circle to settle business with the Russian juggernaut and determine who truly is the undisputed ONE heavyweight world champion.

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Aung La N Sang is also backing Anatoly Malykhin at ONE Fight Night 8

Aung La N Sang is currently in deep preparations for his return to the circle on May 5 when ONE Championship makes its long-awaited debut in the United States. Before seeking his third-straight win, ‘The Burmese Python’ shared his thoughts on next weekend's heavyweight clash in an interview with SCMP MMA:

"I think Arjan’s gonna have a hard time because Malykhin’s a little bit faster, a little bit heavier-handed. You don’t see Arjan put people out like Malykhin does and from what I’ve seen, Malykhin is looking fast."

With 11 career victories, Arjan Bhullar has scored four of those wins by way of knockout. On the other side of the coin is Anatoly Malykin, who currently sits at a perfect 12-0 in his MMA career with an incredible eight of them coming via knockout. That includes a first-round stoppage of former two-division ONE world champion Reinier de Ridder at ONE on Prime Video 5 in December.

Who do you see leaving the Singapore Indoor Stadium as the undisputed ONE heavyweight world champion on March 24? Let us know in the comments section below.

All ONE Fight Night events are live and free on Amazon Prime.