Anatoly Malykhin wants to ‘build a bridge’ between Thailand and Russia with his new gym Dobrynya

Reigning two-division ONE world champion Anatoly Malykhin hopes to help bridge the gap between Russia and Thailand with his new gym in Phuket.

The Russian juggernaut will step inside the legendary Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok this Friday night for a long-awaited ONE heavyweight world title unification bout against Arjan Bhullar. The two men have been on a collision course for more than a year, but the wait is almost over as they are set to clash in the ONE Friday Fights 22 main event.

Before heading to the Muay Thai Mecca, Anatoly Malykhin spoke with ONE Championship about his new gym in Thailand, Dobrynya, and what he hopes to accomplish with it.

“The main goal of this gym is build a bridge between Thailand and Russia so that guys from Russia and Thailand can exchange their knowledge,” Malykhin said.

In the last year and a half, Anatoly Malykhin has emerged as one of the sport's biggest stars. It all began when he captured the interim ONE heavyweight world title with a stunning knockout of Kirill Grishenko in February 2022. Ten months later, he shocked the world once again by putting away feared grappler Reinier de Ridder in the first round of their ONE on Prime Video 5 main event, capturing the ONE light heavyweight world title in the process.

With two ONE world titles hanging off his shoulders, Malykhin has become a fan favorite in relatively short order, but the promotion’s returning heavyweight king hopes to kill his hype this Friday night. Arjan Bhullar has not been seen inside the Circle for more than two years, his last fight being the world title win over former champion Brandon Vera at ONE: Dangal.

Bhullar will look to remind the combat sports world why he is one of the best heavyweights in the world.

Fans in North America can catch all the action at ONE Friday Fights 22 live and for free on ONE Championship’s YouTube channel on June 23.