Artem Belakh vs Enkh-Orgil Baatarkhuu Prediction: It's going to be a tough and short fight

On the night of January 12-13, the legendary Lumpinee Stadium will host ONE Fight Night 18. In one of the main events, Russian fighter Artem Belakh will face a representative of Mongolia named Enkh-Orgil Baatarkhuu.

Artem Belakh has been a professional since 2017 but doesn't fight often. Until 2022, he competed in various Russian leagues (RCC, Open FC, MMA Series, etc.) and debuted in ONE in a fight against Brazilian Leandro Issa (17-8 record at the time), which he won in brilliant style.

The organizers called that fight "wild" and the win allowed Artem to move up to the fourth spot in the rankings, where he is now.

To be honest, it is not clear how these ratings are formed in ONE - in the next fight, Belakh lost (to Kwon Woon by technical knockout), but he did not lose his position (while the Mongol, his current opponent, who won all three of his fights in ONE, is not in the top 5 of the rating).

Artem Belakh has been preparing for fights in Thailand for quite some time now at the famous Tiger Muay Thai gym, and he is being helped by champions Fabricio Andrade and Anatoly Malykhin.

According to the promotion's experts, the 35-year-old Mongolian fighter uses tireless pressure on his opponents and exhausting clinch work in his fights. He is currently on a streak of nine straight wins. In his previous fight, he sensationally choked out undefeated Gianlo Sangiao and made a loud statement about himself.

Artem Belakh suffered defeat last year and several injuries (three surgeries). He will be forced to force things in the fight, which will inevitably lead to both his opponent's and his own mistakes.

And since both fighters prefer to win early, we'll assume this time that the fight won't last long.