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Anatoly Malykhin was once again the man of the moment at ONE 166: Qatar where he closed out the event in style by making history.
The undefeated Russian looked to leave the Lusail Sports Arena on March 1 as MMA’s first three-division world champion by moving down to the middleweight division.
In two fights with Reinier de Ridder, Malykhin has emerged victorious on both occasions, claiming both the light heavyweight and middleweight world championships in the process.
Now that he has etched his name into the history books with a triple crown feat in MMA, the big question for ONE Championship Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong is what do you do with such an unstoppable force.
The ONE head honcho spoke about the next steps for Malykhin during the post-event press conference:
“It's very possible we do boxing world title fights in ONE. Let’s see what happens. Right now I’ll let Anatoly take a vacation with Anita and Leo. They deserve a vacation. Let him gain some weight back, let him eat a lot of chocolate cake. I will sit down with Anatoly and Anita later about what’s next.”
Watch the full post-event press conference below:
Anatoly Malykhin has the world at his feet
Anatoly Malykhin isn’t going to be short on potential opponents now that he is in possession of three world championships.
The only tough task for ONE Championship might be finding something that is challenging enough for the tanky Russian as he looks to continue racking up wins on the global stage.
Malykhin has already spoken about echoing Sityodtong’s thoughts in taking some time off and putting some mass back on so that he can move up to defend his titles.
The three-division world champion is still motivated to maintain this devastating run even now that he has reached the pinnacle by making history at the Lusail Sports Arena.
ONE Championship fans that missed any of the action from ONE 166: Qatar at the Lusail Sports Arena can watch the event back via the on demand replay.
