MMA Scribbles Newsletter — Issue #60
True champions under the radar
We’re winding down to the last few events of the year.
2022 has been interesting in MMA, a lot if fighters have hung up their gloves, and many new ones made fantastic debuts. It’s crazy, but this year had me talk to many new up-and-coming fighters since my time with Spectation Sports and it’s crazy to see the drive some guys have to be champions.
The flip side makes you see another side that makes you wonder how far some guys are willing to chase that dream. ONE on Prime 5 was ONE Championship’s final event of 2022 on Prime Video and the two men that fought in the main event were both undefeated champions, that want to be all that and more, but they can’t because of the pesky “interim” championship model that exists in MMA.
Renier De Ridder and Anatoly Malykhin faced off for the light heavyweight title and Malykhin emerged as the winner, but does he really have a double-champ status as De Ridder did?
Probably not.
Malykhin is the interim-heavyweight champ at ONE Championship because the current champ, Arjan Bhullar is shelved for “reasons” and it was hard to ignore before the event. I wrote all about it over at MyMMANews if you want more details but hopefully, ONE resolves the issue in 2023.
