Photo: ONE Championship
ONE on Prime Video 5’s Interesting Heavyweight Title Picture
ONE Championship’s main event for ONE on Prime Video 5 features an exciting title fight for a few reasons.
The first is Reinier De Ridder’s attempt at winning a third title with the promotion. The undefeated current middleweight and light-heavyweight champion wants to add “Heavyweight Champion” to his resume. To do that, he will have to face Anatoly Malykhin, the interim heavyweight champion at ONE. Having an interim champion puts a small damper on things for either man, because the current champion, Arjan Bhullar has been out of action for over a year since he won.
Bhullar won the title from Brandon Vera in April of 2021. He has yet to defend the title and his absence had Malykhin face Kirill Grishenko earlier this year to win the interim title. Bhullar and Malykhin were due to face off at ONE 161 last September, but Bhullar withdrew due to injury. So, the promotion and division seem to be moving forward but at the ONE On Prime Video 5 press conference, it looks like both Malykhin and De Ridder are in agreement that they are both fighting for the true heavyweight title.
“You should forget Bhullar, he doesn’t exist for me.” – ONE Championship Interim Heavyweight Champ, Anatoly Malykhin
While the possibility of Bhullar being stripped is currently up in the air, Malykhin already said at the press conference through a translator, “You should forget Bhullar, he doesn’t exist for me. He’s just weak. He didn’t accept my fight and it shows a lot from him. I respect my current opponent a lot, this is going to be spectacular, we’re going to make history.”
De Ridder shared a similar sentiment; “Who’s Bhullar? He’s been out of competition so long, he’s not really relevant.” He added, “for me, this is the fight for the heavyweight belt. It’s two top guys, the best guys in ONE Championship going at each other.”
This event is the final event on Prime Video this year that was announced when ONE Championship and Prime Video began their venture together. It is ONE Championship’s way of reaching fans in the U.S. with the promotion looking to hold events there in 2023. ONE Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong also said at the press conference a venue would be announced in “the next few days.”
It will likely be a venue in Colorado as Erik Magraken of CombatSportsLaw.com found out in October they had May 5 or 6 “on hold” at the 1ST Bank Center, in Broomfield. Colorado has already approved the global MMA rules that ONE Championship uses.
Here is the full bout listing for ONE on Prime Video 5
Main Card | De Ridder vs. Malykhin
Light Heavyweight Mixed Martial Arts World Championship
Reinier De Ridder vs. Anatoly Malykhin
Lightweight Submission Grappling World Championship
Kade Ruotolo vs. Matheus Gabriel
Welterweight Mixed Martial Arts
Roberto Soldic vs. Murad Ramazanov
Lightweight Mixed Martial Arts
Dae Sung Park vs. Lowen Tynanes
Preliminary Card | De Ridder vs. Malykhin
Lightweight Mixed Martial Arts
Eduard Folayang vs. Edson Marques
Strawweight Muay Thai
Amber Kitchen vs. Jackie Buntan
Catchweight Submission Grappling
Tye Ruotolo vs. Marat Gafurov
Atomweight Mixed Martial Arts
Lin Heqin vs. Denice Zamboanga
