Three-division MMA king Anatoly Malykhin credits close circle for his success in ONE Championship

Anatoly Malykhin made headlines when he defeated Reinier de Ridder in the main event of ONE 166: Qatar on March 1 via third-round TKO. He become the first fighter in the history of ONE Championship and all of MMA to become a three-division world champion.

Malykhin added the ONE middleweight MMA world title to his collection, and the Lusail Sports Arena was his crowning place. The Russian knockout artist deflected a lot of this enormous and ground-breaking achievement to his support system.

During his recent interview with Morning Kombat, 'Sladkiy' revealed that without the incredible people behind him, he wouldn't be able to reach such great accomplishments, as he said:

"What sets me apart is my team, my family, my wife, my coach, and my coach John Hutchinson is the best boxing coach in the whole world. Plus, on top of that, I have my freestyle wrestling."

The Golden Team representative is still unbeaten in all of his 14 professional fights, and all are knockouts, including six victories in ONE Championship across three different weight classes.

Malykhin's hit list in the world's largest martial arts organization includes Alexandre Machado, Amir Aliakbari, Kirill Grishenko, de Ridder (twice), and Arjan Bhullar.

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Anatoly Malykhin eyes two possible opponents for his next fight in the heavyweight division

After successfully claiming his third 26-pound golden belt, Malykhin is now ready to become an active champion who wants to defend his world titles as much as he can across the middleweight, light heavyweight, and heavyweight divisions.

But he recently named two potential opponents who can challenge him for the ONE heavyweight MMA world title: Oumar Kane and Amir Aliakbari. Both divisional contenders are currently on respective streaks and are worthy of a world title shot.

North American viewers with an active Prime Video subscription can rewatch all the action from ONE 166: Qatar via the event replay.