“Malykhin is a very dangerous guy” - Reinier de Ridder on when he realized how lethal Anatoly Malykhin’s power was

ONE Championship star and current middleweight MMA world champion Reinier de Ridder has fought, and defeated, a laundry list of elite-level fighters bannered by the likes of former two-division ONE world champion Aung La N Sang.

Establishing himself as the next big thing in combat sports by taking the ONE middleweight and light heavyweight MMA world championships held by ‘The Burmese Python’, de Ridder would soon take the biggest challenge of his career in the form of Anatoly Malykhin.

‘Sladkiy’ was coming off a two-round destruction tour of Kirill Grishenko to claim the ONE interim heavyweight MMA world championship and had set his sights on ‘The Dutch Knight’ who was aiming for three-division MMA dominance.

As he would reveal in a short documentary produced by Threepeat Media (@threepeatmedia on Instagram), de Ridder would regret stepping into the ONE Circle against Malykhin:

“I kept calling for heavyweights and my wish was granted. Malykhin is a very dangerous guy, obviously, now we know. He has fireworks in his right hand. If he touches people with his right hand, they go down.”

Instead of a de Ridder defense happening, Malykhin produced one of the best striking masterclasses in ONE Championship history and took the ONE light heavyweight MMA world championship in the process.

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De Ridder eyeing revenge on March 1

His defeat to the Russian star was his first-ever in his 17-fight career and broke his seven-fight winning streak within ONE Championship, but he will get his shot at redemption at ONE 166 on March 1.

Happening inside the Lusail Sports Arena in Qatar, de Ridder would love nothing more than to prevent Malykhin from taking his ONE middleweight MMA world championship in spectacular fashion.

ONE 166 is available live and for free to all Prime Video subscribers in the United States and Canada.