“Heavyweight camp starts” - Tiger Muay Thai coach John Hutchinson teases Anatoly Malykhin’s next world title defense

Tiger Muay Thai coach John Hutchinson has potentially leaked what weight class Anatoly Malykhin will fight at next.

On June 23, Malykhin became an undisputed two-division world champion with a third-round knockout win against former heavyweight king Arjan Bhullar. Now that ‘Sladkiy’ holds the ONE light heavyweight and heavyweight MMA world titles, he must decide how to organize his schedule to ensure neither division stalls.

Malykhin’s last fight was at heavyweight, so rumors began spiraling about him potentially defending his light heavyweight throne next. Yet, the Russian’s striking coach at Tiger Muay Thai, John Hutchinson, shared a temporary Instagram story of ‘Sladkiy’ with the caption:

“Good morning champ @anmalykhin Heavyweight camp starts”

Instagram story

Hutchinson followed up with another temporary Instagram story claiming that Malykhin has officially started a training camp:

“Early to bed early to rise @anmalykhin Camp week 1”

Instagram story

Assuming Anatoly Malykhin is defending his heavyweight throne next, there is a primary option for a title challenger.

Following his win against Arjan Bhullar, Malykhin didn’t have much time to celebrate before Amir Aliakbari entered the fray.

At ONE Fight Night 15, Aliakbari scored a massive first-round knockout over Canadian big man Dustin Joynson and immediately had an in-ring staredown with Malykhin, who was in attendance.

The situation quickly escalated, leading to a near physical altercation in the ring with ONE commentator Mitch Chilson separating the giants.

In September 2021, Aliakbari suffered a devastating first-round knockout loss against Malykhin. Since then, the Iranian grappler has won three consecutive fights, all inside the distance, culminating in a first-round TKO against Dustin Joynson.

It’ll be intriguing to see if ONE Championship schedules the rematch for Anatoly Malykhin’s next heavyweight world title defense.