Amir Aliakbari calls out two-division king Anatoly Malykhin for November showdown

It looks like newly-crowned undisputed ONE heavyweight world champion Anatoly Malykhin is not running out of possible challengers to his 265-pound throne. Perhaps the most intriguing match-up for the Russian behemoth is a man he knocked out in the past, Iranian wrestling powerhouse Amir Aliakbari.

In a video posted by ONE Championship on Instagram, we saw Anatoly Malykhin's absolute demolition of Aliakbari back in 2021:

"Practice makes perfect 😈 Could we expect a rematch between the reigning two-division king Anatoly Malykhin and Amir Aliakbari? 👑 @anmalykhin"

Interestingly, Aliakbari himself commented on the video and proposed a possible date for the rematch:

Amir Aliakbari's comment on Anatoly Malykhin's video

If this match happens, it would mean just a four-month gap between Aliakbari's last outing and his possible world title bout with Anatoly Malykhin. At ONE Fight Night 12 last July, Aliakbari demolished Dustin Joyson in the first round. The hulking Iranian then called out the reigning ONE light heavyweight and heavyweight world champion and then chaos ensued.

The heavy-handed champ-champ didn't second guess jumping inside the ring to confront the man he flat-lined nearly two years ago. The two heated rivals nearly came into blows as ONE commentator Mitch Chillson, interviewing Aliakbari in the ring, tried his best to separate them. But, the things got ugly really fast.

Aliakbari faced Malykhin back in 2021 at ONE: Revolution and was absolutely destroyed within 3 minutes. The wrestling specialist, however, bounced back with two straight stoppage victories in ONE Championship and made it known that he eyes a rematch with the Russian world champion.

This bout is looking quite interesting as Aliakbari has clearly improved over the years and is quite certainly not the same fighter Malykhin KO'd in the past. He will be more knowledgeable in dealing with the world champ's power and will certainly bring new things to the table.

Amazon Prime Video subscribers in North America can catch Amir Aliakbari's KO of Dustin Joyson and the rest of the card at ONE Fight Night 12 on replay and for free.