“I Will Look Good With Two Belts” – Russian Phenom Anatoly Malykhin Warns Dual Champion Reinier De Ridder

ONE Interim Heavyweight World Champion Anatoly “Sladkiy” Malykhin’s main quest in ONE Championship is to unify his gold with Heavyweight king Arjan “Singh” Bhullar’s World Title. 

Unfortunately, Bhullar was forced to withdraw from the highly anticipated unification bout that was supposed to take place at ONE 161 on September 29, leaving Malykhin to wait even longer for a return to the Circle. 

Anatoly Malykhin laid down his ONE Championship roadmap

The Russian star is confident that he will become the World Champion outright when he meets his Indian foe, and when he does that, “Sladkiy” has revealed that he would be eager to drop down a division and attempt to grab Reinier “The Dutch Knight” de Ridder’s light heavyweight crown.

“I am the king of the heavyweight division. After I beat Arjan, I can go a weight class below, as I am a small heavyweight, and take the belt [from de Ridder],” Malykhin said.

“Then if he wants – but after meeting me, he won’t – he can go up to the heavyweight division. I will wait for him. I will look good with two belts.”

For his part, two-division World Champion De Ridder has made it clear that he is eager to make history and become the promotion’s first triple titleholder. 

The Combat Brothers representative has been toying with the idea since he snagged his second strap from Aung La “The Burmese Python” N Sang in April last year, and he’s looking at either the welterweight or heavyweight divisions. 

Malykhin is ready to welcome Reinier de Ridder to the heavyweight division

Malykhin is open to the idea of “The Dutch Knight” making a significant jump to the 265lbs pool. But based on his latest win against Vitaly Bigdash at ONE 159, “Sladkiy” knows that it wouldn’t be easy to become the first fighter to hand the Dutchman a loss in his professional MMA career.

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“Everything is clear: Reinier de Ridder is one of the most dangerous jiu-jitsu fighters. He is very strong on the ground,” he said. 

“Vitaly knew he had to avoid fighting on the ground, that he had to throw punches to the head and the body. You can see he started the fight this way when de Ridder started pushing forward with his hands down, and then Vitaly rocked him with a punch.”

Malykhin will have another chance to analyze “The Dutch Knight’s” strengths when he faces promotional newcomer Shamil Abdulaev at ONE on Prime Video 3 on Friday, October 21.

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If De Ridder can pick up yet another win, Malykhin could potentially have an interesting battle for his first World Title defense – but only after he cancels out Bhullar from his to-do list.