MMA News: Anatoly Malykhin Blasts ONE Heavyweight King Ahead Of Interim Title Tilt

Anatoly Malykhin will be facing Kirill Grishenko for the interim heavyweight title in the co-main event of ONE: Bad Blood, but that does not mean that he is shying away from throwing shots at the official heavyweight champion in Arjan Bhullar.

Malykhin surmised that Bhullar decided not to defend his title as the 34-year-old had already intimidated him.

“I was already at my peak. I was ready to destroy him [Arjan Bhullar] for the ONE Championship [heavyweight] belt,” Malykhin said.

“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.”

Malykhin later added that Bhullar may have a great record, but the champion was not ready to face the promotion’s best heavyweights.

The interim heavyweight title match between Grishenko and Malykhin was announced after company head honcho Chatri Sityodtong revealed that Bhullar and his team did not come to terms on who he will have his first title defense against.

Malykhin and Grishenko have a claim to the ONE heavyweight title as both fighters remain undefeated in two fights after putting their opponents away in decisive fashion.

Grishenko last fought promotional newcomer Dustin Joynson at ONE: NextGen in late October of last year, picking up the unanimous decision victory after a three-round war that the latter almost came back from in the final round.

The Russian was then asked about his thoughts on facing Grishenko but practically dismissed him.

“As a fighter, he is non-standard with unusual strikes–backfist, spinning elbow. He has a good physique since he is a classic wrestler. But I don’t see anything special he could stop me with,” Malykhin said of Grishenko.

Malykhin’s claims have some weight in them as Grishenko’s striking certainly looked suspect against Joynson, especially in the later rounds as the Belarusian started throwing haphazard punches that allowed the momentum to swing back to the Canadian.

As both fighters are proficient in wrestling, it all comes down to who gets to secure top position first and rain down strikes to potentially force a TKO stoppage and take home the interim heavyweight strap.

Conditioning will certainly play a part in this fight as the titans will be looking for the quick finish, but it might not be the case if it turns into a wrestling match.

“I think Kirill [Grishenko] has no chance, with all my respect to him,” Malykhin declared.

ONE: Bad Blood will be streaming live on the ONE Super App and the official ONE Championship YouTube channel at 8:30 PM SGT (7:30 AM ET in the United States) on Friday, February 11.