"That is going to affect him" - Akbar Abdullaev suggests Halil Amir might struggle to adapt at featherweight
Akbar Abdullaev returns in search of his third consecutive win under the ONE Championship banner at ONE Fight Night 22.
The undefeated 26-year-old has proven himself to be a legitimate threat in the featherweight MMA division and with his impressive wins, a big fight was guaranteed to be next.
However, rather than drawing a top contender from the fighters that are competing at the same weight class, an opponent is moving down from lightweight to face him.
Halil Amir has got an impressive win streak of his own against some of the top names in the lightweight division.
Whilst Amir believes that featherweight is his more natural weight class, there are still going to be questions for him to answer in this new weight category.
Akbar Abdullaev told Nick Atkin in an interview for Sportskeeda MMA that he believes this will play a factor in their fight and give him an edge:
"Yeah, I think I think it's gonna matter. It's gonna make a difference because like he's dropping weight. He's going down, of course, the fight is going to show everything. We're going to know what's going to happen but that is going to affect him somehow..."
Watch the full interview below:
Akbar Abdullaev doesn't need a reason to be confident
Halil Amir getting used to a new weight class in this fight isn't the only thing that Akbar Abdullaev believes will go in his favor come fight night.
Even if Amir's wins had all come at featherweight, the fight would still be a hard one to call on paper based on the incredible potential that both men have shown so far during their runs in the promotion.
Abdullaev is yet to go past the first minute in either of his two fights under the ONE banner and that's something that Amir is going to be very wary of.
Whether he can push the fight into deep water and really test Abdullaev in the later stages of the fight remains to be seen.
ONE Fight Night 22 will air live and free in U.S. primetime for North American viewers with an active Prime Video subscription.