Whilst he believed that the unification bout between heavyweights Anatoly Malykhin and Arjan Bhullar will have given extra, ONE CEO and Chairman Chatri Sityodtong nonetheless praised the 2 combatants for placing up a amusing combat.
The 2 best heavyweights in the end met to unify the department belt on June 23 at ONE Friday Fights 22 on the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok.
Former ONE intervening time heavyweight global champion Anatoly Malykhin despatched erstwhile titleholder Arjan Bhullar to a third-round technical knockout (punches) loss to turn out to be the undisputed king of the department.
In spite of an injured leg, the Russian fighter used to be dominant proper from the get-go, ceaselessly tearing down Arjan Bhullar with tough moves. It sooner or later got here to an finish on the 2:42 mark of the 0.33 around with ‘Singh’ Bhullar down at the mat, not able to search out an break out from the pounding of ‘Sladkiy’ which brought about the referee to wave off the competition.
Chatting with the South China Morning Submit following ONE Friday Fights 22, Chatri Sityodtong mentioned that the heavyweight unification bout didn’t pass the thunderous course he used to be anticipating, however it used to be nonetheless a just right and amusing combat.
The ONE govt mentioned:
“Hats off to either one of them for giving a just right combat, regardless of them now not functioning at their easiest ranges personally. I assumed it used to be nonetheless a amusing combat. It simply wasn’t the extent that they generally perform at or compete at.”
Watch the interview beneath:
The victory made Anatoly Malykhin, who could also be the sunshine heavyweight king, a bona-fide double ONE global champion. It additionally prolonged his undefeated skilled combined martial arts document to 13-0, with the ultimate 5 coming beneath ONE Championship.
He’s now focused on a 3rd global identify, atmosphere his points of interest on Dutch champion Reinier de Ridder and his ONE middleweight global identify.
Replay of ONE Friday Fights 22 is to be had on ONE Championship’s YouTube web page.
