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Chatri Sityodtong has lifted the lid on why the promotion is yet to book a fight for Arjan Bhullar, the reigning ONE Championship heavyweight champion. Bhullar became the champion after beating Brandon Vera last year and is yet to make his first title defense.
Speaking at the post-fight press conference following ONE: Heavy Hitters, Sityodtong said:
“Arjan’s manager was not the most… how can I be very polite about this? I would say that the manager was combative and arrogant. The manager from CAA [Creative Artists Agency, Bhullar’s representatives], I won’t name the name, but the negotiations went up to the head of sports at CAA, Nez Balelo, who is a phenomenal guy and he and I get along very well."
The ONE founder and CEO added:
“He [Nez Balelo] very much has the same mindset as we do at ONE. We want to make sure our athletes are paid well, we want to make sure our managers are taken care of [and] we also want to make sure it’s a fair deal for ONE. And I think Nez has that lens."
Sityodtong first alluded to the contract dispute via a statement to SCMP MMA. He detailed how contract talks had stalled, which prompted the company to book an interim title fight between top contenders Anatoly Malykhin and Kirill Grishenko.
Chatri Sityodtong confirms increased number of bouts
The ongoing pandemic has made for a stressful time in the world of combat sports. Like every other organization, ONE Championship has endured countless fight cancelations due to COVID-19.
The match between Anatoly Malykhin and Kirill Grishenko was originally scheduled for ONE: Only the Brave on January 28th. The fight has now been moved to ONE: Bad Blood on February 11th after Malykhin tested positive for COVID-19.
To combat late drop-outs, Chatri Sityodtong shared that ONE Championship will increase the number of bouts on the fight cards of upcoming events. He said:
“What we’re doing now for every event, just because of what happened [at Heavy Hitters] – we originally had 12 fights scheduled, four got knocked out because of Covid-related reasons – we are actually going to be increasing the number of bouts per event by about 30-40 per cent, on every single show,” Sityodtong said. “So if there are drop outs, we can still end up at 12 [fights]." - h/t SCMP MMA
The first quarter of 2022 marks a period of several high-octane shows for the Singapore-based promotion. The company will celebrate its ten-year anniversary at ONE: X on March 26. The fight card will feature two title fights, as well as a special rules bout between Demetrious Johnson and Rodtang.
