ONE Championship news roundup

Welcome to today's edition of the daily Sportskeeda ONE Championship News Roundup, where we present the promotion's most important stories.

Today we discuss Mikey Musumeci’s appreciation for ONE Championship’s push of submission grappling, the heavyweight world title unification match between Arjan Bhullar and Anatoly Malykhin, and the sudden passing of rising star Victoria Lee.

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#3. Mikey Musumeci pumped for next fight, thankful for ONE’s push of submission grappling

Mikey Musumeci has lived and breathed Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and the reigning ONE flyweight submission grappling world champion recently showed his appreciation for ONE Championship’s development of the sport.

"Darth Rigatoni" is set to defend his gold against Mongolia’s Gantumur Bayanduuren at ONE Fight Night 6 on Prime Video at Bangkok Arena on January 13, US primetime.

In an Instagram post, Musumeci expressed how excited he is for his second world title defense. He also thanked ONE Championship for continually pushing the grappling arts into the mainstream audience.

“10 more days until I return to compete again and attempt to retain my flyweight title [ONE Championship] in Bangkok, Thailand. This time I will be facing the current combat sambo world champion in my weight class; he’s from Mongolia!”

He added:

"So amazing how ONE is helping our sport grow and how international jiu-jitsu is becoming. It should be an amazing match!”

ONE Fight Night 6 is available live and for free to all Prime Video subscribers in North America.

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#2. Arjan Bhullar vs. Anatoly Malykhin ONE Championship heavyweight world title unification set

ONE Championship will finally see who is the rightful owner of the heavyweight throne.

The promotion recently announced that ONE heavyweight world champion Arjan Bhullar will face Anatoly Malykhin, the ONE interim heavyweight world champion, in a unification match in March.

Malykhin and Bhullar’s colossal battle will take place at ONE Fight Night 8 on Prime Video on March 24.

The match will mark Bhullar’s return to action after their initial face-off in 2022 got postponed after ‘Singh’ got injured in training camp.

Malykhin, meanwhile, has had one of the best runs in the Circle the past year.

The Russian knockout machine became ONE interim heavyweight world champion when he finished off Kirill Grishenko at ONE: Bad Blood in February. Malykhin then followed it up with an absolute mauling of Reinier de Ridder to claim the ONE light heavyweight world title at ONE on Prime Video 5 in December.

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#1. ONE Championship atomweight Victoria Lee dead at 18

The MMA world lost one of its brightest young stars at the tail-end of 2022.

Atomweight contender Victoria Lee suddenly passed away at the young age of 18. Her older sister Angela relayed the sad news on Instagram.

“On December 26, 2022, our family experienced something no family should ever have to go through... It is incredibly difficult to say this…Our Victoria passed away.”

Angela added:

“She has gone too soon and our family has been completely devastated since then. We miss her. More than anything in this world. Our family will never be the same. Life will never be the same.”

Victoria was a stellar athlete even before she entered the Circle, having won accolades across different combat sports.

She joined the promotion in 2021 and amassed a professional record of 3-0, with all three of her wins coming via finish.