It was victorious UFC Octagon debut for Arjan Bhullar.
The 31-year-old from Richmond scored a unanimous decision victory over Brazil’s Luis Henrique at UFC 215 on Saturday night in Edmonton.
The first Sikh and South Asian fighter in UFC history took control of the fight with a dominating second round that saw him catch Henrique with a counter right then use his freestyle wrestling background to pick up his opponent and slam him to the floor. Henrique, 24, rebounded with a better third round but not enough to prevent Bhullar from remaining undefeated in his Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) career at 7-0.
Following a decorated amateur wrestling career that was highlighted by a gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and competing at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, Bhullar had his first amateur MMA bout in 2014 and turned pro later that year. He signed with UFC in May, shortly after his final victory in the Battlefield Fight League.
“It was amazing. Something you visualize when I made the transition over first of all then the weeks and months leading up to this,” said Bhullar during his post-fight press conference on Saturday.
“Getting my hands taped, the actual fight, the walk in and walk out, everything went according to how we foreseen it.
“The fight went good too. I got a little bit of everything in there. The emotions got a little high when I dropped him but (then) I brought it down and got dialled back in. More than anything it special to hear that crowd out there.”
Bhullar had plenty of support among the 16,000 fans at Rogers Place, including a charter flight from Vancouver with 200 family and friends on board.
“We had our own team plane as well as people fly in from California, Toronto and India,” added Bhullar who has done some training at the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose. “Now we are all going to the union hall and have one big party.”
The plan was Bhullar to be joined by his good friend Jinder Mahal for his pre-fight walk-in but he had to stay in Florida due to Hurricane Irma where the WWE pro wrestling star owns four properties.
Bhullar will soon resume training and his coaching duties with the wrestling team at the University of Fraser Valley in Abbotsford where he works alongside former national teammate Raj Virdi.
