Buchecha marvels at Anatoly Malykhin’s ability to finish fights everywhere

Undefeated heavyweight standout Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida has been very impressed with Anatoly Malykhin’s ability to finish opponents on the feet and on the mat.

Malykhin achieved the biggest victory of his career at ONE Friday Fights 22 last month when he defeated former heavyweight world champion Arjan Bhullar in a long-awaited title unification clash held at the prestigious Lumpinee Boxing Stadium. The bout unified Malykhin’s interim title with Bhullar’s undisputed crown and has potentially set the stage for a future fight between ‘Buchecha’ and the Russian juggernaut.

Appearing on the JAXXON podcast, Almeida marveled at the heavy hands of Anatoly Malykhin, but the 17-time BJJ world champion also lauded his ability to finish fights on the ground.

“Like Anatoly [Malykhin], the champion of ONE Championship, he has like really heavy hands, but he can get a couple of submissions too,” Almeida said. “Not submissions, but a lot of ground and pound wins.”

To his credit, Anatoly Malykhin has four career submissions, but you can’t deny that ‘Sladkiy’ is much more known for his power which has helped him score nine career knockouts, five coming under the ONE Championship banner.

Looking ahead, Malykhin aims to become the first-ever three-division world champion after claiming the heavyweight and light heavyweight titles last year. To achieve that, he will have to overcome Reinier de Ridder, the reigning ONE middleweight world champion.

Whether or not that bout happens remains to be seen, but one fight we can expect to happen in the near future is the long-awaited heavyweight clash between ‘Buchecha’ and ‘Reug Reug.’ Almeida will make his return to the Circle at ONE Fight Night 13 next month for a potential heavyweight title eliminator against Senegalese knockout artist Oumar ‘Reug Reug’ Kane.

Amazon Prime Video subscribers in North America can catch all the action at ONE Fight Night 13 live and for free in U.S. primetime on August 4.