Anatoly Malykhin boldly claims he needs less than five minutes to beat Reinier de Ridder again

At ONE on Prime Video 5 in 2022, Anatoly Malykhin produced one of the most impressive performances that has been seen inside the Circle for some time.

It was a clash of undefeated world champions in the main event as the Russian behemoth moved down a weight class to challenge Reinier de Ridder for the ONE light heavyweight world title.

With a devastating display of speed, power and wrestling pedigree, he was able to hand his opponent his first loss by stopping him in the very first round. At the same time, he became a two-division ONE world champion.

Ahead of their rematch at ONE 166: Qatar on March 1, Malykhin is out to produce a similar jaw-dropping performance by beating ‘The Dutch Knight’ in the same fashion.

He told the South China Morning Post that he will defeat De Ridder for the middleweight title to become a three-weight world champion with another first-round knockout:

“We have the same game, and the same grappling skills, but I still plan to finish him in the first round with my new game.”

Watch the full interview below:

Anatoly Malykhin cannot afford to take Reinier de Ridder for granted

Reinier de Ridder has openly admitted that the first time around, he may have taken Anatoly Malykhin for granted ahead of the fight.

‘The Dutch Knight’ was used to coming up against opponents, taking them down and submitting them with relative ease until he came up against the Russian.

What Anatoly Malykhin cannot afford to do this time around is repeat the mistakes that De Ridder made in their first fight by overlooking the challenge that is in front of him.

If he is to become the first ever three-weight world champion in MMA, he has to be firing on all cylinders in preparation for a motivated and focused opponent.

ONE 166 will air live and free for North American viewers with an active Prime Video subscription.