Mauro Cerilli Makes His Case for a One Championship Heavyweight Title Shot

“The Hammer” believes he should be the next in line.

Mauro Cerilli (14-4, 2-2 One) believes he has the strongest arguments to be the next contender for Arjan Singh Bhullar’s heavyweight belt. First, the former Cage Warriors Fighting Championship titleholder has more experience than most contenders in the heavyweight roster. On top of that, he is coming off a dominant performance that saw him stop Abdulbasir Vagabov with punches 36 seconds in the second frame at One: Unbreakable 2. Most importantly, Cerilli and Bhullar have some history as they clashed in Oct. 2019 when Bhullar took a decision victory from the Italian fighter. Now, Cerilli claims that it’s time to run that fight again.

“Looking at the other contenders, it looks to me that it should be pretty automatic that I have another chance, especially because the decision was very tight,” Cerilli said while talking with Sherdog. “If I look at the other people in the heavyweight roster, there is nobody with the same amount of fights in One coming from a victory or with the same amount of fights overall. The Korean guy [Won Kang Ji] who beat Amir Aliakbari, for sure, put himself in a nice position, but that guy just has 5 matches. I have a history in One and MMA in general, and I have a close fight with Bhullar that really should put me automatically for a least a rematch. Otherwise, I don’t see anybody who deserves it more than me.”

Tudor Leonte started writing about mixed martial arts in 2013 for Italian media outlets. His journey with Sherdog began in 2018 and he now covers One Championship and countless European shows. You can follow him on Twitter @MrTudorLeonte.