"My loves" - Anatoly Malykhin breaks out the soccer ball and enjoys some family time

Anatoly Malykhin, the ONE Championship interim heavyweight champion, is spending some quality time with his family. He recently posted a photo on Instagram of himself with his wife and child, holding a soccer ball.

In the caption of the post, he wrote:

"My loves"

His wife, Anita Malykhin, is also his manager. She gave him the nickname 'Sladkiy', which translates to 'Sweetie' in English.

The undefeated Russian heavyweight fighter has shared athletic pursuits with his child previously. Ahead of his interim title fight, ONE posted a video of Malykhin in the gym with his son.

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Anatoly Malykhin on his interim championship

Anatoly Malykhin picked up the ONE interim heavyweight title in 2021. He knocked out Kirill Grishenko to earn the title and extend his unblemished professional record to 11-0. He explained in an interview with ONE Championship how much this belt means to him.

“It changed my life financially... I’ve been dreaming of becoming ONE world champion. I trained a lot. My family put a lot of effort into it, and my dream came true... There were many people back home who supported me, sent me messages, and my close relatives are very happy. Life has got better and I am ready to reach for new heights.”

This now sets up a fight against reigning Indian-Canadian ONE heavyweight champion Arjan Bhullar. Malykhin claims Bhullar is scared of him. He explained in his post-fight interview after winning the interim title:

"He probably peed himself when he was watching my fight and when he was watching my first fight, too. He’s a chicken. My baby. I can knock him out anytime. He’s not the champion, I’m the champion."

Bhullar won the heavyweight title with an impressive second-round TKO victory over Brandon Vera in 2021. He then sat out most of last year due to contract disputes with the organization.

Until last week, there were sparse updates on these contract disputes. These contract issues are now in the rear-view, as Bhullar explained on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani.

“I have re-signed. I’ve got a new deal, a multi-fight, multi-year deal that also allows me to pro wrestle. It’s a one-of-a-kind deal we haven’t seen in MMA... We’ve come to terms with ONE, absolutely.”

Watch Arjan Bhullar's appearance on The MMA Hour below: