Arjan Bhullar To Meet Amir Aliakbari In Heavyweight MMA Battle At ONE 166: Qatar
A massive heavyweight mixed martial arts clash has been added to the historic ONE 166: Qatar event on Friday, March 1.
The promotion’s debut in Qatar will see former ONE Heavyweight MMA World Champion Arjan “Singh” Bhullar return to face fellow contender Amir Aliakbari in a high-stakes battle at Lusail Sports Arena.
Following a debut victory over Mauro “The Hammer” Cerilli, Bhullar won the divisional gold from longstanding king Brandon “The Truth” Vera back in 2021, stopping the Filipino-American by TKO in the second round of their contest at ONE: DANGAL.
With injuries and other setbacks keeping the Canadian-Indian out of action, Anatoly “Sladkiy” Malykhin won the ONE Interim Heavyweight MMA World Title in 2022. Malykhin then finished “Singh” via TKO to unify the crown and become the undisputed king at ONE Friday Fights 22 earlier this year.
However, Bhullar has promised to regroup and come back stronger – and he can begin his climb back toward the top on March 1.
Meanwhile, Aliakbari is on a steep upward trajectory, battling back from a tough start to his ONE Championship tenure.
The Iranian superstar dropped his first two matchups in the organization, but since then, he has delivered dominant showings, producing TKO wins over Cerilli and Vera before submitting Dustin Joynson last time out.
Aliakbari promised to go for the top dogs when he entered ONE, not anticipating the struggles he might face. But now, he is making good on his early statements and could take a huge leap forward with a victory over the former titleholder.
Stylistically, both men are elite-level wrestlers, as Bhullar is a Commonwealth Games Gold Medalist and Aliakbari is a Greco-Roman Wrestling World Champion.
They’ve also added powerful striking, ground-and-pound, and submission skills to their arsenals, giving them fight-ending potential in every area.
With a potential shot at Malykhin’s World Title in store for the winner – as well as heated words between them going back several years – Bhullar and Aliakbari will be fired up to make a statement.
ONE Championship is pulling out all the stops for its first outing in Qatar, with five World Championship bouts planned for the mega-event on March 1. Stay tuned to onefc.com for all of the updates.
