“Moo Deng and I will get ours back” - Anatoly Malykhin vows to reclaim heavyweight MMA throne after fan meet at ONE Fight Night 26

Ever the fighter, Anatoly Malykhin will always have his sights on the biggest prize, even if he is hanging out with fans in a laidback setting. The reigning ONE middleweight and light heavyweight MMA world was in attendance for a meet and greet with fans before ONE Fight Night 26 at the historic Lumpinee Stadium this past weekend.

Despite his time attending to photo requests and playing with his Moo Deng plushie, Malykhin is adamant that his main goal is to reclaim the ONE heavyweight MMA world title that he lost to Oumar 'Reug Reug' Kane at ONE 169 in November.

Anatoly Malykhin wrote on Instagram:

"Thank you for the meeting, thank you for the energy and faith in me 💪 Moo Deng and I will get ours back 💪 Thank you very much for everything ❤️"

Malykhin was riding a perfect 14-0 wave in his career, 6-0 in ONE Championship, when he defended the heavyweight MMA throne against Kane in the main event of ONE 169 at Lumpinee Stadium.

While most fans anticipated another knockout win from the Russian big man, especially with his track record of six straight KOs in ONE Championship, the inevitable happened when he dropped to a split decision loss to relinquish the gold.

Nevertheless, Malykhin said in previous interviews that he's determined to recapture his form and avenge the only loss he suffered in his MMA career.

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Anatoly Malykhin says things felt off in his world title defeat to Oumar 'Reug Reug' Kane

Anatoly Malykhin was confident to high heaven heading into his world title defense against Oumar 'Reug Reug' Kane at ONE 169. 'Sladkiy' said in an interview with ONE Championship that he did everything right in training camp, but things felt wrong on the day of the fight.

He pointed out that he felt he wasn't at a hundred percent when he made his way to the locker room inside Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok.

"The training camp was solid. We trained well and did everything as planned, but on the day of the fight, I just didn't feel physically at 100 percent."