I put myself in an environment where I can push myself to highest level: ONE Champion Arjan Singh Bhullar

New Delhi [India], June 21 : The reigning ONE Heavyweight Champion Arjan Singh Bhullar, who will be defending his title against Anatoly Malykhin in a heavyweight world title unification match, said that mindset is extremely important in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and said that he puts himself in an environment where he can push himself to the highest level.

The match between Arjan and Anatoly will take place on June 23.

Speaking exclusively to Star Sports, Bhullar spoke on his training regimen and workout routine, and how important it is to have a proper mindset in MMA.

"I look for the best coaches, the best gym, and I put myself in an environment where I can push myself to the highest level. This is what it takes, and these people are already there and they will get me there. So, I started with that, and then you know, step by step, every fight I learnt more, in training I learnt a little more. I started with defence, you know you do not want to get hurt, so first is defence, then build up the offence and all the techniques therein," he said.

He added "I know how to train, how to train hard, set goals, how to achieve them, how to be a professional, how to sleep on time, eat right, diet, how to win, how to lose, I already have all that from wrestling. So now I needed the techniques to get good at this sport."

Bhullar also spoke on the origins of the sport and how he had to train in different martial arts to become a champion.

"How this sport started, why they call it Mixed Martial Arts is you have Wrestling, that is one mixed martial art, you have Boxing, that is another martial art, Jiu Jujutsu, Kick-boxing, they are all individual arts. So how this sport started was someone had the idea that if you take a wrestler and say a boxer, and you make them fight, I wonder who would win in a fight? Then it was okay, let us take a boxer and a kick-boxer, let us see who would win in a fight. So that is how the sport started, and we are going to pay them and figure out who the baddest man is."

"Eventually, the fighters started training in other martial arts as well, not just their own. So the wrestlers started boxing and kick-boxing, because they knew that 'Hey, I need to know as much as I can to win this fight against this individual.' So that is when it became rather than just one martial art, mixed martial arts, and everybody started training in everything and that is where we are at now in the modern day where you have to do a little bit of everything and whoever is the best at everything is a world champion," he concluded.