Anatoly Malykhin has been goading Arjan Bhullar on social media for several months now with the Canadian by and large staying quiet. That seems to have changed now that the regular heavyweight champion is fit, healthy and looking to fight again.
Bhullar has bitten back this week after being on the receiving end of a string of insults from the interim champion. He took to Instagram just now to post a photo of himself with two belts.
Before becoming the ONE Championship heavyweight champion Bhullar was the BFL heavyweight king. In the photo he has both belts slung over his shoulder and some harsh words for Maykhin and Amir Aliakbari:
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Romantic streak
Aliakbari called Bhullar out after his win over Brandon Vera at ONE on Prime Video 5. The Iranian is not in a particularly strong position when it comes to demanding a title shot having lost two out of his first four fights for the promotion.
The losses both came by way of first knockout but that didn’t stop the Iranian from calling out Bhullar who describes him as ‘the Persian Princess’. But Bhullar’s comments about Malykhin are unlikely to go down well with the Russian who he describes as,
The baby who cries for his wife after every fight
Malykhin certainly seems to have a romantic streak and shared this photo along with a caption in which he tells his wife she is ‘the only onw in the world’:
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Baby chicken
Having repeatedly described Bhullar as his baby chicken Malykhin cannot complain too much about the Russian firing back with some banter of his own. But the interim heavyweight champion and regular light heavyweight champion won’t bee too happy about having his wife dragged into the discussion.
Chatri Sityodtong recently voiced the suspicion that Bhullar was scared of Malykhin. The Canadian has turned down fights with the Russian for various reasons with a contract dispute and an injury having delayed the bout for over a year.
But Bhullar’s fighting talk does not exactly make it sound like he is running scared. He clearly heard the comments from the ONE Championship CEO as he recently declared he wanted to fight ‘the scariest heavyweight’.
That heavyweight unification fight looks set to finally happen in 2023. It promises to be a big fight and both men are bound to have plenty to say about one another in the buildup.
