Tag: Arjan Bhullar

Arjan Bhullar’s embarrassing DQ loss at ONE 166 draws criticism from CEO Chatri Sityodtong: ‘This one is unacceptable’

Arjan BhullarReferee Herb Dean disqualified Arjan Bhullar in the final minute of his ONE 166 clash with Greco-Roman Wrestling champion…

Arjan Bhullar

Referee Herb Dean disqualified Arjan Bhullar in the final minute of his ONE 166 clash with Greco-Roman Wrestling champion Amir Aliakbari.

Stepping into a potential title eliminator, ‘Singh’ refused to engage for as long as the fight was allowed to continue. Bhullar, who was ONE’s heavyweight world champion just two fights ago, was content to move backward for a majority of the contest, dancing around the cage wall and offering little in the way of offense. The slow pace prompted multiple warnings from Dean that went unacknowledged.

In the second round, patience was beginning to wear thin with Dean issuing not one, but two yellow cards.

For those unfamiliar, ONE Championship uses a yellow card system to penalize fighters for a number of infractions, including fouls — i.e. low blows, eye pokes — and for stalling, as was the case with Bhullar. Each yellow card serves as a warning, but it also deducts a percentage of the fighter’s total purse. After two yellow cards, the next one issued is a red card which results in a disqualification.

Bhullar was given two yellow cards in the second round, but after continuously failing to engage, Dean broke out the red card with just 45 seconds left in the third and final round, ensuring Arjan Bhullar would lose the contest.

Following the lackluster showing, ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong held absolutely nothing back, calling Bhullar an “embarrassment” to his home country of India.

“In thousands of fights, I have never been embarrassed,” Sityodtong said in a post-fight press conference. “We’ve had one red card in history. I never speak ill of fighters. I never speak ill of our fighters, ever. Rarely, but this one is unacceptable. I think maybe in the first round he threw one punch. Second round he threw two punches. He ran the whole time and it was very clear he was scared.

“If you want to be a professional fighter, fighting the best in the world at the highest levels… We were live broadcast in India with 1.3 billion people and it’s an embarrassment.”

Arjan Bhullar’s ONE Championship run has been frustrating, to say the least. After KO’ing Brandon Vera to win the ONE heavyweight title in May 2021, ‘Singh’ went more than two years without defending his gold as he sought to secure a more favorable contract. In June, he finally returned for a unification clash with interim titleholder Anatoly Malykhin, who dismantled him with ease.

Later on in the evening, Malykhin defeated Reinier de Ridder for the ONE middleweight title, making him the first-ever simultaneous three-division champion in MMA history.

Anatoly Malykhin smashes Arjan Bhullar en route to unifying ONE world titles – ONE Friday Fights 22 Highlights

Anatoly MalykhinAnatoly Malykhin traded in his interim heavyweight title for undisputed gold on Friday after securing a third-round TKO against ONE heavyweight world champion Arjan Bhullar. Emanating from the legendary Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, ONE Friday Fights 22 featured a heavyweight main event more than a year in the making as Russian knockout artist Anatoly […]

Anatoly Malykhin

Anatoly Malykhin traded in his interim heavyweight title for undisputed gold on Friday after securing a third-round TKO against ONE heavyweight world champion Arjan Bhullar.

Emanating from the legendary Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, ONE Friday Fights 22 featured a heavyweight main event more than a year in the making as Russian knockout artist Anatoly Malykhin sought to unify his interim ONE heavyweight title with Arjan Bhullar’s undisputed heavyweight world championship. He did exactly that, dominating ‘Singh’ through nearly three rounds before ultimately dragging Bhullar to the canvas and pounding out the biggest victory of his career.

With the win, Anatoly Malykhin moved to 13-0. He also kept his 100% finish rate intact while adding another 26 pounds of ONE Championship gold to his collection. ‘Sladkiy’ now reigns as both the ONE heavyweight and light heavyweight world champions. If he gets his wish, Malykhin will have the opportunity to become the first-ever three-division titleholder in MMA history as he hopes to challenge reigning ONE middleweight champion Reinier de Ridder in October.

Until then, the Russian juggernaut will simply have to make do with the two massive world title belts already in his collection.

Official Result: Anatoly Malykhin def. Arjan Bhullar via TKO (strikes) at 2:42 of Round 3.

Check Out Highlights from Anatoly Malykhin vs. Arjan Bhullar at ONE Friday Fights 22 Below:

ONE Championship titleholder Arjan Bhullar calls out Francis Ngannou for ‘The most-Watched fight of all time’

Arjan Bhullar calls for fight with PFL Francis Ngannou most watched fight of all timeReigning ONE heavyweight world champion Arjan Bhullar believes a fight between himself and Francis Ngannou could bring in 800 million viewers. ‘The Predator’ made waves two weeks ago after revealing that he had signed a ground-breaking contract with the Professional Fighters League. Aside from making himself a truckload of cash, Ngannou also guaranteed a fat […]

Arjan Bhullar calls for fight with PFL Francis Ngannou most watched fight of all time

Reigning ONE heavyweight world champion Arjan Bhullar believes a fight between himself and Francis Ngannou could bring in 800 million viewers.

‘The Predator’ made waves two weeks ago after revealing that he had signed a ground-breaking contract with the Professional Fighters League. Aside from making himself a truckload of cash, Ngannou also guaranteed a fat stack of money for his future opponents and a seat at the head of the table for the PFL’s latest expansion into Africa. The former UFC heavyweight champion isn’t expected to step inside the Smart Cage until 2024, but if Arjan Bhullar gets his way, his ticket for the Francis Ngannou lottery will be the winning one.

Speaking with Chamatkar Sandhu on YouTube about a potential ONE vs. PFL co-promoted event, Bhullar suspects that the $2 million guaranteed purse for Francis Ngannou’s first opponent could be worth significantly more as part of a cross-promotion between the two global enterprises.

“And I think to be quite fair, I think that two million is if you’re in-house with the PFL. If we’re co-promoting, we’re doing this or that, there’s no ceiling to that,” Bhullar said.

Arjan Bhullar Believes a Fight Between Himself and Francis Ngannou Would Be the Most Watched Fight in MMA History

Arjan Bhullar also suggested that no other fighter in the world could bring as many eyes to the potential matchup as he.

“I think there’s significantly more, in terms of myself, there’s no other heavyweight on the planet that could bring 800 million eyeballs, [through] Star sports [broadcaster of ONE Championship in India], to the table being a champion with that. It would be the most-watched fight of all time, you wouldn’t get those eyeballs anywhere else” (h/t MMA News).

Before he begins lobbying hard for a scrap with Francis Ngannou, Arjan Bhullar will first need to deal with interim ONE heavyweight world champion Anatoly Malykhin. The two behemoths are scheduled to unify their titles on June 23 at ONE Friday Fights 22 after more than a year of delays and cancellations.

“June 23rd, I’ve got a date,” Bhullar continued. “I’ve gotta take care of that, but after that, nothing else, it’s all just talk. So no in terms of that, but if we’re just talking, we’re sitting on a podcast, then yes, definitely.” 

Are you interested in seeing the reigning ONE heavyweight world champion mix it up with Francis Ngannou?

Ex-UFC kingpin Francis Ngannou urged to make ONE Championship move: ‘He’s conquered the West’

Francis NgannouArjan Bhullar is optimistic and hopeful that former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou might join ONE FC. While certainly a move that would cause waves in the industry, it’s still all up in the air as to what Ngannou decides to do with his career. The former UFC heavyweight champion was on top of the […]

Francis Ngannou

Arjan Bhullar is optimistic and hopeful that former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou might join ONE FC.

While certainly a move that would cause waves in the industry, it’s still all up in the air as to what Ngannou decides to do with his career. The former UFC heavyweight champion was on top of the world after defeating Stipe Miocic in their highly anticipated rematch at UFC 260 and besting his friend and former training partner Ciryl Gane at UFC 270.

‘The Predator’ made the decision not to resign with the UFC and has since been taking a break from the sport. While potential fights between Ngannou and the likes of Tyson Fury or Deontay Wilder have emerged, no concrete evidence of Ngannou’s next fight has revealed itself at the time of the writing of this article.

That leaves the world in a precarious situation. One of the greatest heavyweights of our era is a free agent and does not seem to be willing to budge anytime soon as far as re-signing with the UFC goes.

Arjan Bhullar hopeful Francis Ngannou signs with ONE FC

“He’s (Francis Ngannou) conquered the West. Let’s bring him out to the East. I have no problem with this,” Arjan Bhullar began (H/T MMA NEWS). “People are scared of him as well, but if you’re a fighter and you’re a champion, it doesn’t matter who it is. You step up,” He continued.

“That’s what a champion does, win, lose, or draw. And I have never run away from a fight. I have never shied away. I’ve lost, but I am not that guy. There’s no one that can say Arjan Bhullar didn’t step up. I might win, I might lose, but I will always step on that line, I will always sign the contract. I’m a man at the end of the day.”

“They’re nuclear bombs, I get that, but if you have a nuclear bomb and you can’t land it, what are you gonna do?” Bhullar declared. “Same thing with Anatoly. If your delivery system isn’t there to land a bomb, you can sit at home with your bomb. It means nothing. I don’t get hit. I’ve got that grappling.”

Defending the title against Anatoly Malykhin after several cancellations of the fight, it’s unclear whether or not Bhullar will even be the ONE FC heavyweight champ by the time Ngannou joins the organization if ‘The Predator’ ever even decides to do so.

Regardless, a bout between the two men would sure be an insane banger and a fight fans would gladly pay to see. It’s still unclear as to what Francis Ngannou’s plans are, but right now, it is true everything leads to ‘The Predator’ hoping for a big-money boxing match against the current stars of that sport.

Francis Ngannou has said the PFL or ONE FC could very well be his two options when it comes to MMA but that still leaves things very much in the air in terms of his future.

Would you prefer to see Francis Ngannou box or join ONE FC?

Arjan Bhullar Praises Francis Ngannou’s “Principles” After Similar Battle With ONE

Former UFC champion Francis Ngannou has received support from one of his heavyweight peers after rejecting the promotion’s final contract offer and departing. After a year of uncertainty following his victory over Ciryl Gane last January at UFC 2…

Former UFC champion Francis Ngannou has received support from one of his heavyweight peers after rejecting the promotion’s final contract offer and departing. After a year of uncertainty following his victory over Ciryl Gane last January at UFC 270, which activated the champions clause and extended his stay in the organization, Ngannou has been stripped…

Continue Reading Arjan Bhullar Praises Francis Ngannou’s “Principles” After Similar Battle With ONE at MMA News.

ONE Champion Arjan Bhullar Set To Return Following Long Absence

ONE Heavyweight Champion Arjan Bhullar’s nearly two-year hiatus from fighting is over and he’ll return on March 25th. News of Bhullar’s return was first reported by the South China Morning Post. Bhullar will appear in the ONE cage for…

ONE Heavyweight Champion Arjan Bhullar’s nearly two-year hiatus from fighting is over and he’ll return on March 25th. News of Bhullar’s return was first reported by the South China Morning Post. Bhullar will appear in the ONE cage for the first time since earning the heavyweight title over Brandon Vera in April 2021. After signing…

Continue Reading ONE Champion Arjan Bhullar Set To Return Following Long Absence at MMA News.