Anatoly Malykhin eyes three undisputed world title belts in ONE Championship

Anatoly Malykhin is now officially a two-division world champion, and he doesn't plan to stop there.

The Russian superstar became the undisputed ONE heavyweight world champion at ONE Friday Fights 22 on June 23, finishing heavyweight king Arjan Bhullar in the third round inside the decorated Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.

Immediately after the win, the fighter known as 'Sladkiy' opened up on his next mission on the global stage during the post-fight interview with ringside color commentator Mitch Chilson.

Anatoly Malykhin told the fellow martial artist:

"[Reinier] de Ridder, come, three-belt time!"

Although it would take the 265-pound king a significant amount of time to be at the 205-pound limit of the middleweight division, many wouldn’t bet against the 35-year-old doing just that.

Case in point, he remains undefeated and owns a perfect 100 percent finishing rate across all his 13 professional fights.

In February last year, ‘Sladkiy’ claimed the interim heavyweight strap with a second-round finish of Belarusian tank Kirill Grishenko. 10 months later, he dropped to the light heavyweight division to steal de Ridder’s 225-pound world title.

He’s already got the blueprint and experience to compete in a lighter weight division.

And although there are slight concerns about whether or not he will possess the same amount of power, everything ‘Sladkiy’ seems to touch is turning to gold at the moment.

With one chapter of his career closed for good, the 35-year-old wants to run it back against ‘The Dutch Knight’ whenever the middleweight champ is fit and ready to return to the ONE stage.

In the meantime, relive Anatoly Malykhin’s epic win over Bhullar at ONE Friday Fights 22, available for free on ONE Championship’s YouTube channel.