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by IANS |
Singapore, Jan 10 (IANS) Top contenders Anatoly 'Spartak' Malykhin and Kiril Grishenko will battle it out for the interim ONE Heavyweight World title when they face off in the main event of 'ONE: Only The Brave' on January 28 here.
ONE Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong explained the need in setting up an interim World Title for the heavyweights, as The Home Of Martial Arts need to move forward with the influx of talented big guys coming in.
CEO Chatri also said that Arjan Bhullar and his management team have been declining 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," said CEO Chatri Sityodtong to ONE Championship.
The two definitely deserve to be the frontrunners to the World Title with Malykhin riding high on a nine-fight win streak, with victories over Alexandre Machado and Amir Aliakbari in the first round.
Grishenko is just as deserving. At 5-0, the Belarusian has been on a roll since joining the promotion last year, first announcing his arrival after retiring Oumar "Reug Reug" Kane at ONE On TNT 4 back in April, before a memorable unanimous decision win over Dustin Joynson at One: Nextgen in October to deal the Canadian his first career loss.
It's going to be a hard-hitting heavyweight showdown at ONE: Only The Brave, which will also see the featherweight duel between Kim Jae Woong and Tang Kai in the co-main event.
The card will also feature the semifinals of the One Kickboxing Featherweight World Grand Prix which will pit no. 1-ranked Marat Grigorian against no. 4 Chingiz Allazov, and no. 3 Sitthichai taking on Davit Kiria.
