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Anatoly Malykhin may be a natural grappler, but his good friend Fabricio Andrade is convinced the Russian monster fell in love with knocking people out the moment he realized his devastating power.
The reigning three-division world champion built a reputation as one of the most terrifying punchers in all of mixed martial arts, and he used those sledgehammers he calls fists to rack up a perfect 6-0 record in ONE Championship.
In an interview with Sportskeeda MMA, Andrade postulated how Malykhin eventually fell in love with boxing and how he kept his overwhelming grappling on reserve.
The reigning ONE bantamweight MMA world champion said that while Malykhin can always use his innate wrestling to subdue opponents, the Russian Master of Sport in Freestyle Wrestling would rather knock people out than drag them on the canvas.
Fabricio Andrade said:
"As soon as he found out he had that power behind his fists, he was like, 'Oh, I don't want to do wrestling no more. I want to strike.'"
Malykhin began throwing those fists in the Russian regional scene, but he soon found unprecedented notoriety the moment he arrived at ONE Championship in 2021.
'Sladkiy' didn't just rack up a perfect promotional record, he captured the ONE middleweight, light heavyweight, and heavyweight MMA world titles through his concussive striking.
ONE 166: Qatar saw Malykhin ascend to rarified air when he stopped Reinier de Ridder for the ONE middleweight MMA throne in the third round to become a three-division world champion.
Fabricio Andrade talks of his friendship with Anatoly Malykhin
While Anatoly Malykhin is undeniably the most fearsome athlete in the ONE Championship roster, the three-division world champion has a completely opposite persona when he's not taking people's consciousness.
Fabricio Andrade is often a willing witness to Malykhin's jovial personality whenever they train together at Tiger Muay Thai, and 'Wonder Boy' attested that the jovial Russian is as laidback as anyone else.
"Anatoly is not just a great fighter, he's a great person," Andrade told Sporskeeda MMA. "He has a great personality. He has no ego and he's always trying to make everyone around him happy."
