“He cannot beat Anatoly” - Fabricio Andrade says Anatoly Malykhin will always be Reinier de Ridder’s boogeyman

Fabricio Andrade believes Reinier de Ridder can beat anyone in ONE Championship, except for Anatoly Malykhin.

De Ridder was once a two-division world champion and one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, but that reputation took a hit, quite literally, when he faced Malykhin.

The rampaging Russian took away de Ridder's perfect record and the Dutchman's two world titles.

In an interview with Sportskeeda MMA, Fabricio Andrade said de Ridder is still leagues ahead of the other contenders in the middleweight and light heavyweight MMA divisions.

Despite commending the Dutchman, the ONE bantamweight MMA world champion stressed that Malykhin is still superior to de Ridder. He said:

"So I think right now, if you look at the roster, his competition, I'm sure he could beat the other fighters, but he would always end up in problems with Anatoly. Yes, he is the best in the division, but he cannot beat Anatoly."

'The Dutch Knight' once held both the ONE middleweight and light heavyweight MMA world titles, but Malykhin decided that those two belts would look better on his shoulders than de Ridder's.

Malykhin first took the ONE light heavyweight MMA world title from de Ridder at ONE 164 in December 2022.

After he captured the undisputed ONE heavyweight MMA world title against Arjan Bhullar at ONE Friday Fights 22, Malykhin faced de Ridder for the second time earlier this month for the ONE middleweight MMA world title.

Although their second fight took a bit longer than the first, Malykhin still ransacked de Ridder's coffers and took the ONE middleweight MMA world championship in the main event of ONE 166 in Qatar.

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Fabricio Andrade never doubted Anatoly Malykhin in middleweight debut against Reinier de Ridder

Although Malykhin has spent the bulk of his professional career at heavyweight, his good friend Fabricio Andrade never doubted the Russian monster's chances at middleweight.

Malykhin had no problems dropping to 225 pounds when he first faced de Ridder for the light heavyweight MMA strap, and the move to 205 pounds also went smoothly for 'Sladkiy'.

In the same interview, Andrade said his fellow Tiger Muay Thai fighter would always have de Ridder's number, irrespective of weight class. He added:

"When he was fighting de Ridder again, I was like, you know, Anatoly Malykhin is a very determined athlete. When he said he could make weight, it wasn't a question of whether he could beat de Ridder. I think making the limit was the tougher aspect."