"Eventually, me and him will fight" - Odie Delaney on former teammate 'Buchecha' ahead of respective ONE 158 fights

Odie Delaney will step back into the ONE circle at ONE 158 on June 3. After an impressive performance on debut against Thomas Narmo, Delaney will look to impress again, this time versus Iranian wrestler Mehdi Barghi.

While speaking to Sportskeeda MMA's Dylan Bowker, Delaney discussed what may come next for him should he replicate his debut success in his sophomore bout.

During the conversation, attention turned to other fighters on the ONE 158 card, specifically Marcus Almeida, better known to the MMA world as 'Buchecha'.

"'Buchecha' was a a teammate of mine when I was down in Coconut Creek for a couple of years. He's a brother in Christ. He's a man of faith like myself. He's a very respectful, true martial artist and I just think the world of him."

While Odie Delaney is not looking past his ONE 158 opponent, he does believe that a fight with Marcus 'Buchecha' Almeida is inevitable. On that, he told Sportskeeda MMA.

"Yes, I think eventually, me and him will fight and in my estimation it will probably be for a belt or a contender spot for the belt and that's going to be awesome. That's going to be a fight the entire world is going to want to tune in to and watch because it's going to be a five-round bloody battle. He's a tough dude. I think he's probably one of the toughest guys in the division, if not the toughest. It's just a matter of time before you can prove it. It'll be a great honor to meet him eventually."

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Odie Delaney gives thoughts on likely unification bout between Arjan Bhullar and Anatoly Malykhin

Odie Delaney may only be on the cusp of his second appearance in ONE Championship, but another impressive performance could put him in pole position for a heavyweight title shot.

While speaking to Sportskeeda MMA, Delaney addressed the likely heavyweight title unification bout between reigning champion Arjan Bhullar and interim titleholder Anatoly Malykhin.

"I think it's interesting because I think a lot of guys that fight them both respectively, they get beat before they walk into the cage and I think that they both have a huge intimidation factor and I think that's kind of what has given them a little bit of success."

While both fighters bring an intimidation factor to their opponents, Odie Delaney is unsure of what will happen should the two meet in a unification bout.

Regardless, the most important thing for Delaney is for the two fighters to go for it rather than playing it safe for 25 minutes.

"I honestly thought Kirill [Grishenko] was going to win that fight [versus Malykhin], but I think, like I say, there's a little bit of that fear factor that gets brought in. Now when they both fight each other, I'm very interested to see which one can maintain their confident composure and get in there. I really hope it doesn't turn into one of these things where you got two dangerous human beings and they just dance around each other scared for five rounds."

Catch our full interview with Delaney below: