Chatri Sityodtong says Reinier De Ridder-Anatoly Malykhin II could take place at middleweight in ONE Championship

At ONE on Prime Video 5 last year, ONE Championship closed out 2022 in style with an epic matchup between two elite divisional kings.

Undefeated world champions met in the main event, with Reiner de Ridder defending his ONE light heavyweight world championship. Looking to take the Dutchman’s belt and claim two-weight world championship status for himself was Anatoly Malykhin, who at the time held the interim heavyweight belt.

With one of the best performances of the year, the Russian behemoth handed de Ridder the first loss of his career in devastating fashion, stopping ‘The Dutch Knight’ in the opening round. Malykhin defeated Arjan Bhullar earlier this year to unify the heavyweight titles, and now he has his focus set on becoming a three-weight world champion.

After making the drop to light heavyweight pretty seamlessly, the Russian now wants to challenge Reinier de Ridder for his middleweight title next time out.

During an interview with the South China Morning Post Martial Arts, ONE Championship’s Chairman and CEO, Chatri Sityodtong, gave an update on the possibility of this happening:

“Anatoly has been begging to fight Reinier de Ridder at middleweight. Reinier has declined that fight. This was, I don't know. I wasn't involved in this in the matchmaking. But I think when Anatoly beat Arjan Bhullar, he called up RDR. I think…I can’t remember. My mind is fuzzy. And then at that point, I think my team had offered it to RDR and RDR declined.”

Continuing on what would be another colossal fight under the ONE Championship banner, he added:

“So you know these things again, big fights take time, takes the right kind of magic to work and all sides have to be aligned. But, I think the next big interesting fight is going to be RDR versus Anatoly II at middleweight.”

Watch the full interview below: