Anshul Jubli made a lot of buzz in the MMA circuit after winning the Road to UFC early this year afte beating Indonesia’s Jeka Saragih and earning himself a UFC contract.
New Delhi: One Championship’s Heavyweight Champion Arjan Singh Bhullar is set to go one-on-one against current interim Heavyweight Champion Anatoly Malykhin in his first-ever title defence at One Friday Fights 22 which will take place at the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand. The fight can be seen live exclusively on Star Sports and Disney plus Hotstar on June 23.
Ahead of the mega clash, Arjan addressed his dispute with UFC fighter and a rising name from India in the world of MMA, Anshul Jubli. The 28-year-old made a lot of buzz in the MMA circuit after winning the Road to UFC early this year after beating Indonesia’s Jeka Saragih and earning himself a UFC contract.
Jubli’s win made him an overnight sensation in India and his post-fight speech where he said “Namaste UFC, India is here” went viral all across the internet. Jubli is the first India-born fighter to win inside the UFC octagon. However, social media preached him as the first Indian to represent India at that stage.
However, Bhullar openly vouched against it as he is also a fighter of the Indian-origin and has represented India in the UFC before too. Bhullar is the first-ever MMA Heavyweight champion coming of Indian origin and after his online comments on the matter, many believed that he and Jubli have a dispute between them.
“Yes and No, obviously he is born in India so there’s a difference, you have to respect that. yes i was the first and there was another Indian-born fighter that came through as well, he had one fight even before him. So you have to be a student of the sport if you wanna be great and he doesn’t even know his own lineage in the sport that’s all that was,” Bhullar explained the dispute with Jubli during an exclusive conversation with India.com.
Bhullar had represented Canada in Commonwealth Games and even won a medal for them. So many people even question when he talks about representing India in MMA. He answered all these critics and said “I’m definitely not Chinese, I’m definitely not African. So it’s understandable that my blood is still Indian. My family comes from Punjab, I’m very close to Punjab, we still have family in Punjab. So I’m happy that I’m able to represent that.”