ONE Friday Fights 22 results: Anatoly Malykhin overwhelms, stops Arjan Bhullar in heavyweight title unifier
ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong declared Anatoly Malykhin the "best heavyweight on the planet" after yet another dominant performance.
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ONE Championship has a new undisputed heavyweight champion – and he’s still perfect.
In their title-unification bout at ONE Friday Fights 22, Anatoly Malykhin overwhelmed Arjan Bhullar before winning by TKO with ground-and-pound in the third round at Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand. It was yet another show of dominance from Malykhin, who is now 13-0 since turning pro in 2016 and has finished all 13 of his fights.
Afterward, ONE CEO Chatri Sityodtong got on the microphone and declared Malykhin “the best heavyweight on a planet.” Whether or not that’s actually true could be up for debate, but Malykhin (13-0) looked the part against Bhullar (11-2).
Anatoly Malykhin
unifies the ONE Heavyweight World Title with a DOMINANT TKO win over Arjan Bhullar!
#ONEFridayFights22 |
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— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) June 23, 2023
Right away in Round 1, Malykhin was the aggressor, leaving Bhullar no choice but to rely on his defensive boxing. Bhullar did find some success with his jab, but Malykhin clearly landed more combinations and heavier shots. In the second, Malykhin came out firing, with Bhullar again on his backfoot as he ate a pretty clean uppercut. Malykhin, with his relentless pressure, nicely worked in shots to the body, which opened up for him to land upstairs. It was a crisp and efficient display of boxing from Malykhin, which caused Bhullar to show fatigue as he walked back to his corner.
Malykhin had never entered the third round in his career, but there was no slowing down from the Russian. Right away he trapped Bhullar in the corner and unloaded a barrage of punches as he tried to finish. To Bhullar’s credit, he hung in there, and Malykhin switched to dragging him to the mat, where the two men rolled out of the ring. On the restart, Bhullar, who was starting to fade, appeared to intentionally crawl out of the ring as a stalling tactic, garnering a yellow card from the referee. When they restarted again, Malykhin jumped down on Bhullar, who turned to his stomach, and rained down punches for the finish at the 2:42 mark.
The fight was a rude awakening for Bhullar, who returned to action after a more-than-two-year layoff.