Anatoly Malykhin is looking to create a piece of combat sports history at ONE 166, and, despite dropping significant weight to make it possible, he said he’s in the best shape of his career.
Malykhin, who already holds ONE Championship’s heavyweight and light heavyweight titles, is now gunning for the middleweight title held by Dutch champ Reinier De Ridder.
The bout, which forms the main event in Qatar on Friday, March 1, will see the pair face off for the second time following Malykhin’s devastating first-round knockout of “The Dutch Knight” in their light heavyweight title clash at ONE on Prime Video 5 in December 2022.
Despite his dominant victory to dethrone De Ridder in their 225-pound title clash, the big Russian will have to drop a further 20 pounds in order to challenge De Ridder for his middleweight crown. But the jovial two-division champ arrived for fight week in Qatar looking trim, and in great spirits.
“I’ve only noticed one change,” he said ahead upon his arrival.
“I have become 20 years younger, that’s for sure! I’ve never felt the way I feel now. I’m in great shape!”
Despite dropping a significant amount of weight, “Sladkiy” said he’s still cracking the pads with power, and he’s looking forward to showing the world that he’s been able to carry all of his devastating KO power down to the middleweight division.
“Absolutely, I feel great this time around,” he said.
“Sometimes during shadowboxing or hitting bags, I get scared of myself. I’m very fast and very strong. I’m tough and very motivated.
“I want to make history, and that’s what pushes me to get up early in the morning and give it 100 percent.”
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After his crushing first-round KO of De Ridder in their first meeting, Malykhin is expecting the middleweight champion to go all-out for a takedown in order to avoid a potential repeat, and to give himself the chance to use the smothering jiu-jitsu that saw him dethrone Aung La N Sang twice for the middleweight and light heavyweight titles.
Malykhin is very aware of this threat, but said that he has been sharpening his top-drawer wrestling skills to ensure that De Ridder’s talents are stifled at source.
This time, we focused on wrestling. I’m pretty sure De Ridder will try to wrestle with me,” he explained.
“We worked a lot on freestyle wrestling, so it would be hard to take me down, and we also worked on jiu-jitsu.
“But there was also one new thing – I swam a lot. Swimming is good for cardio, and it can be relaxing in general. It’s like meditation for me. I have no weaknesses now. I’m very good in all aspects of MMA. I’m a good striker and my wrestling is great, and my physical condition is at its peak.”
Malykhin will also have half an eye on another bout on the card in Qatar, as rival heavyweight contenders Arjan Bhullar and Amir Aliakbari go head to head in a potential heavyweight title eliminator earlier in the night.
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“It’s a great fight,” said Malykhin.
“It’s a good test for both men. I don’t think they have ever had an opponent at the top of their game. This fight will show what they are really worth. I think Arjan will win. He is the smarter fighter.
“On the other hand, Amir is a one-round fighter. Amir is very dangerous in the first round. He can take you down, he can hit hard, but from the second round on, Amir runs out of energy quickly, which he can’t handle mentally.
“In my opinion, Arjan will survive the first round. He will be cautious somewhere, and he will fight a little bit of dirty MMA. Then he’s going to win this fight on the scorecards. Of course, Arjan’s not going to knock out Aliakbari, he doesn’t have that kind of knockout power. But I think he’s going to outwork him. Arjan is the smarter fighter, more cunning.”
As for the potential of facing the winner, Malykhin was unfussed.
“I don’t worry about that,” he said.
“I fight every opponent I can. There are matchmakers who make the cards. They know what’s best for ONE. They have more experience, they have a better view of the situation, they have more experience in this business than I do.
“I’m ready to fight anybody, there’s no difference to me. I’m ready to fight any two of these guys at the same time on the same night.”
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ONE 166: Confirmed fight card
- Reinier De Ridder vs. Anatoly Malykhin – for middleweight title
- Tang Kai vs. Thanh Le – for featherweight title
- Jarred Brooks vs. Joshua Pacio – for strawweight title
- Arjan Bhullar vs. Amir Aliakbari
- Zuhayr Al-Qahtani vs. Mehdi Zatout – boxing
- Osamah Almarwai vs. Cleber Sousa – submission grappling
- Zafer Sayik vs. Vladimir Kuzmin – Muay Thai
- Zakaria El Jamari vs. Ali Saldoev – Muay Thai
- Shinji Suziki vs. Han Zi Hao – Muay Thai
- Keito Yamakita vs. Jeremy Miado
