Anatoly Malykhin says crushing body shots were key to victory over Arjan Bhullar

Anatoly Malykhin believes working the body was his key to victory against Arjan Bhullar at ONE Friday Fights 22.

The Russian juggernaut scored the biggest win of his career inside the legendary Lumpinee Boxing Stadium earlier this month, defeating Arjan Bhullar in a long-awaited heavyweight world title unification clash.

Anatoly Malykhin finished ‘Singh’ just past the two-minute mark of the third round with a series of strikes on the mat, but if you ask Malykhin, the victory was largely due to his emphasis on attacking Bhullar’s body in the opening round:

“His torso, I think, is his weak point. He always protects his head well, so I worked more on his body – in my calm and relaxed style, that’s it. I waited for the body shots to do their job."

Now reigning as both the undisputed ONE heavyweight and light heavyweight world champion, Anatoly Malykhin has set his sights on making mixed martial arts history by becoming the first-ever three-division world titleholder. To achieve that goal, ‘Sladkiy’ will have to go through a man he’s more than familiar with, Reinier de Ridder.

De Ridder, the reigning ONE middleweight world champion, came up short against Anatoly Malykhin during their ONE on Prime Video 5 clash late last year, suffering a brutal first-round knockout. ‘The Dutch Knight’ would love to even the score, but to do so, he will probably need to put his middleweight crown on the line, giving Malykhin an opportunity to do what no man or woman has ever done before in MMA.

Do you want to see Anatoly Malykhin run it back with Reinier de Ridder for the ONE middleweight world title?

If you missed any of the action, the ONE Friday Fights 22 replay can be watched anytime via ONE Championship’s YouTube channel.