Despite focusing on his upcoming match against Kirill Grishenko, Anatoly “Sladkiy” Malykhin still found some time to fire some shots at ONE Heavyweight World Champion Arjan “Singh” Bhullar.
Malykhin and Grishenko will battle for the ONE Interim Heavyweight World Title in the main event of ONE: BAD BLOOD this Friday, February 11, at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. For the Russian juggernaut, whoever wins this match should be the rightful champion.
With Bhullar’s contract negotiations at a standstill, ONE Championship organized an interim world title match. Malykhin takes issue with that development, for he feels that the Indian-Canadian wrestler had been holding up the division.
“I don’t consider this belt interim. I will be the real champion,” Malykhin told ONEFC.com.
“If the champion refuses to fight, then he is no longer the champion.”
“Sladkiy” has been yearning for a shot at Bhullar, and he’s confident that he would destroy the Canadian-Indian.
To send a warning to Bhullar, Malykhin finished Alexandre Machado and Amir Aliakbari. The Golden Team athlete feels that the world champion is afraid of losing, hence the delays in the negotiations.
“I was already at my peak. I was ready to destroy him for the ONE Championship belt,” the fighting pride of Kemerovo shared.
“I think that somewhere, mentally, this fear of being destroyed was passed to him. And at some point, he just broke. He doesn’t want to fight.
“He is not a fighter. He is a professional, he has a decent record, but he is not a fighter. He is not ready to fight the best. And currently, I’m the best. He is just a chicken. This is all I can say about him.”
The heavyweight with a 10-0 MMA record expects to become the newest world champion in the world’s largest martial arts organization. And he couldn’t care less if Bhullar returns or not because he promises to be an active champion.
“Kirill will be knocked out. That’s it. First or second round at the most,” Malykhin predicted.
“When I’m in the Circle, I will show what I’m capable of. I will stage an eye-catching fight. I’m sure of that. Many will enjoy it. In the end, I will become a champion and rule the division for a long, long time.
“Let’s forget about Arjan – he’s already in the trash bin of history. Soon, we will have a new champion.”
Catch ONE: BAD BLOOD live on One Sports+ beginning with the lead card at 6 p.m. Philippine Standard Time (PHT) on Friday, February 11.
One Sports and One Sports+ will broadcast the main card at 8:30 p.m. PHT. The entire event will also air simultaneously on ONE’s YouTube channel and the ONE Super App.
