The Canadian born Indian wrestler put an end to the Filipino MMA fighter’s five-year reign and became the second title holder after besting the inaugural ang long-time king of ONE Heavyweight division.

          “It’s really amazing being the first MMA World Champion from India. It’s a great honor and a great privilege. It’s going to be here forever. History and legacy are very important to me,” said Bhullar in his exclusive interview with ONEFC.com, reflecting in the significance of his victory.

          “It’s the first time in my entire career that I felt gassed in the first round. It’s weird,” explained by Vera in the post-match interview with ONE commentator Mitch Chilson, revealing that his weakened stamina is a major turning point of the match.

          The 34-year-old Bhullar controlled the pace opening frame of the, pressuring the Filipino to the edge of the cage yet Vera unleashed his main arsenal—lower limb kicks but were in vain as Bhullar’s firm legs where hard to topple.

decisive feint jabs did the trick.

          The reigning champ will never step down easily, distancing himself from his challenger with his long-reaching jabs and low-sweeping kicks to lessen the Indian bruiser’s control of the cage but Bhullar’s decisive feint jabs did the trick.

          With almost two minutes left on the clock, Bhullar successfully took down the champion to the floor but cannot do anything more with Vera countering with a kimura attempt and both locked together on the floor until the first round expires.

          In the second round, Bhullar spiced things up as he connected a right hook to Vera’s face at 3:56, stunning the Filipino-American champion and a minute later, Bhullar landed a solid body shot hurting Vera.

          Bhullar’s offense didn’t rest as he secured a take down for the second time at 2:05 mark but with Vera in a compromised turtle position with Bhullar resting his heavy weight on the back of the helpless Vera and wearing him down with consecutive punches.

          Vera managed to get up but Bhullar dragged him down again  to the canvas but this time Bhullar never let the defending champion rise again and continued to pummel Vera, raining down hammering blows to Vera’s head from behind until the referee stopped the fight with only 33 seconds left in the clock.

          The boxing and wrestling prowess of India’s pride proved to be too much for the Fil-Am Jiu-Jitsu expert, handing the coveted belt to the challenger.

          Bhullar improved his slate to 11-1-0 (Win-Loss-Draw) while the dethroned Vera had his record stepped down to 16-9-0.

          One interesting fact, the word “Dangal” in ONE: Dangal   means honor in Filipino while it means wrestling arena in Hindi, relevant to Kushti that is an old wrestling tradition in India which is the style of the new world champion.