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MMA's first and only simultaneous three-division world champion Anatoly Malykhin, fresh from his historic win at ONE 166: Qatar two weeks ago, is already looking at possible challengers to one of his thrones.
The ONE middleweight, light-heavyweight, and heavyweight MMA world champion is looking like he'll defend his 265-pound belt first and has a possible opponent in mind for it. True to his confident nature, 'Sladkiy' predicted the outcome as well.
The challenger in question is Senegalese wrestler Oumar 'Reug Reug' Kane. The hulking heavyweight is coming off the biggest win of his career in a unanimous decision victory over BJJ legend Marcus 'Buchecha' Almeida at ONE Fight Night 13 last year.
In a conversation with ONE, Malykhin opened up on a possible world title defense against 'Reug Reug', and said:
"Thoughts [on a fight with 'Reug Reug']? Knockout in round one, win a bonus, then have a good time with my family after the win."
As simplistic and cocky as that may sound, Malykhin has the resume to back it up. The undefeated Russian has 14 wins with 14 finishes, with 10 coming by way of knockout. Five of those knockouts came in the first round. Most of those stoppages happened at heavyweight, as well.
Anatoly Malykhin's run at heavyweight is one of the best the sport has ever seen
It's quite easy to say that not only is Anatoly Malykhin one of the best heavyweights in MMA today, he is also one of the best fighters, period. However, he largely built his legacy at heavyweight, where he became a feared man by nearly everyone.
Malykhin compiled an impressive 8-0 pro record with a perfect finishing rate in his home country before getting signed by ONE. Once he entered the global martial arts organization, 'Sladkiy' went on a violent romp en route to triple gold status.
After handily dispatching Alexandre Machado and Amir Aliakbari with back-to-back first-round KO wins, Malykhin tasted gold for the first time by stopping Kirill Grishenko for the interim ONE heavyweight MMA world title.
After taking a slight detour by stopping Reinier de Ridder to win the ONE light-heavyweight MMA strap, Malykhin returned to heavyweight to face Arjan Bhullar to unify the division's belts. He finished Bhullar inside three rounds.
His most recent performance was his historic third world title win over Reinier de Ridder for the ONE middleweight MMA world title at ONE 166. A return to heavyweight is imminent - and we're eager to see him clash with 'Reug Reug', if ever that bout materializes.
