Aung La N Sang says Anatoly Malykhin was just a "bad stylistic matchup" for Reinier de Ridder

Aung La N Sang believes that Anatoly Malykhin is simply a nightmare matchup for Reinier de Ridder. In back-to-back fights, Aung La lost both his middleweight and light heavyweight world titles to the Dutchman.

At ONE on Prime Video 5, de Ridder was defeated for the very first time by ONE interim heavyweight world champion Malykhin, who stopped him in devastating fashion.

The Russian’s superior size and power forced ‘The Dutch Knight’ to stand with him, unable to implement his grappling skills which he used to dethrone Aung La on two occasions.

In an interview with SCMP MMA, ‘The Burmese Python’ gave credit to Malykhin for his performance against de Ridder and spoke about the skills that gave him the edge in their fight:

“His head positioning, his hand positioning were very good. His attacks, his boxing was very good, very versatile going to the head, going to the body. It was just a matter of time. The guy has so much power, so much power, and you know styles make fights. Styles make fights. So, he’s just a bad stylistic matchup for Reinier.”

Watch the full interview below:

Aung La N Sang will hope to continue working his way back to the ONE middleweight world championship by defeating Gilberto Galvao at ONE Fight Night 6 on Prime Video.

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Aung La N Sang hopes to showcase how much better he’s gotten since last fight

Former two-division ONE world champion Aung La N Sang is looking forward to showing off what he has been working on when he returns on Friday night.

‘The Burmese Python’ will look to keep his momentum pushing forward as he leaves the past behind him. It’s been a few rough years for Aung La after losing both of his world championships in back-to-back fights against Reinier de Ridder.

But going 2-1 since losing his world titles, Aung La is looking to ride the momentum of his most recent victory, a first-round knockout win over Yushin Okami at ONE 163.

Focusing on improving his skills instead of chasing world titles too heavily, Aung La is eager to put on a show for the fans and display how he is evolving as a fighter.

In an interview with ONE Championship, he said:

“Evolution is what I hope the fans see. An evolution to my game, that I can do everything, that I can do it at a high level, and that I’m a fan-friendly fighter – meaning that it’s a fight that fans will get to enjoy."

Standing in Aung La N Sang’s way of a second straight victory is returning Brazilian veteran Gilberto Galvao. Fans in North America can watch their fight and many more this Friday night at ONE Fight Night 6.

The event will air live in US primetime on Prime Video for free with an active subscription to Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service.