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ONE Championship announced that they will create an interim heavyweight championship. The decision comes with Arjan Bhullar said to be continuously declining to defend his belt.
Anatoly Malykhin will fight for interim gold against Kirill Grishenko at ONE Championship: Only The Brave. The event will be held inside the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Discussing the heavyweight announcement in an interview with the South China Morning Post, ONE CEO Chatri Sityodtong said:
"Arjan and his management team have declined multiple offers to defend the ONE heavyweight world championship under his current contract. While this plays out, the show must go on in our heavyweight division, so we will be crowning an interim world champion between top contenders Anatoly Malykhin and Kirill Grishenko."
Bhullar won the ONE Championship title in April 2021 after defeating long-time reigning titleholder Brandon Vera with a second-round knockout. It was only his second fight in the organization after debuting against Mauro Cerilli in October 2019.
The Canadian-Indian fighter owns a professional MMA record of 12-1 and seven of those wins came via decisions.
Two undefeated heavyweight fighters compete for the interim belt
Both Kirill Grishenko and Anatoly Malykhin boast unblemished records. One of them will taste defeat for the first time when they meet at ONE Championship: Only The Brave.
Grishenko stands at six-foot-four and tips the scales at 265 pounds. He has a 5-0 record and two of those fights happened in ONE Championship. The Belarusian fighter made his debut against Oumar Kane and won via second-round knockout. His next bout was against Dustin Joynson and he prevailed on the judges' scorecards.
Prior to joining the ONE Championship roster, he had been a standout fighter under the promotional banners of Mortal Combat and the Belarusian Fighting Championship
Meanwhile, Anatoly Malykhin hails from Kemerovo, Russia, and goes by the ring name 'Sladkiy'. He is a five-foot-eleven, has a professional fighting record of 9-0 and had two fights in ONE Championship, all in 2021.
