Chatri Sityodtong bewildered by Anatoly Malykhin’s ‘strength and power’ at middleweight: “It’s just very hard”

ONE Championship Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong is very much in awe of Anatoly Malykhin’s incredible journey on the global stage of martial arts.

The ONE head honcho, a lifelong martial artist, understands how tough it is for an athlete to drop a couple of divisions off their regular competition weight and perform at the same level – if not – better.

However, none of that seems too much of an ask for the promotion’s newly minted three-division MMA world champion, Anatoly Malykhin.

Speaking at the ONE 166: Qatar post-event press conference, Sityodtong had this to say on the Golden Team’s historic feat shortly after he finished Reinier de Ridder to add the ONE middleweight MMA world title to his possession.

Sityodtong said:

“There’s no question Anatoly is the best heavyweight on the planet. Obviously, he’s a Russian national team wrestler, best of the best, and he hits like a truck.”

He added:

“Even at middleweight. For someone to lose 25 kilos of muscle, it’s just very hard and still being able to maintain your strength and power. But he looked sharp.”

Watch the full interview here:

The self-made entrepreneur doubled down on just how great Malykhin is, pointing out his perfect finishing rate and hit list to prove why the Russian destroyer is simply the best in the world at the minute.

He added:

“He has a 100 percent finish rate; I think 80 or 90 percent are in the first round. If you look at the records of his opponents, these are killers, and I think he would steamroll any heavyweight in the world.”

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What’s next for Anatoly Malykhin inside the ONE Circle?

A pivotal MMA heavyweight showdown that went down at ONE 166: Qatar could have unearthed the Russian’s next challenger under the ONE banner.

Before Anatoly Malykhin upped his tally against de Ridder in the main event inside the sold-out Lusail Sports Arena, Amir Aliakbari’s crushing power and grappling forced Arjan Bhullar to be in no man’s land, where the Indian athlete was eventually awarded a red card for timidity and inactivity.

The victory was the Iranian’s fourth successive win on the global stage and he might have just positioned himself into the front of the line to challenge the Golden Team star next.

ONE 166: Qatar can be watched via replay for North American fans with an active Amazon Prime Video subscription.