ONE CEO still buzzing about Anatoly Malykhin’s KO of Reinier de Ridder

ONE Championship’s founder and CEO is still buzzing over Anatoly Malykhin’s jaw-dropping knockout of previously undefeated two-division titleholder ‘The Dutch Knight’ Reinier de Ridder, at ONE on Prime Video 5. Speaking at the event’s post-fight press conference, the ONE CEO said:

“It's one of those extraordinary performances that you'll see every now and then. I think the world is very lucky to see a performance like that. I mean, how often do you get a storyline of two undefeated world champions going at it? Where Anatoly was arguably the underdog.”

Both warriors entered the bout as not just ONE world champions, but as undefeated warriors as well. Reinier de Ridder carried a 16-0 professional MMA record while Malykhin was on a 11-0 run.

With each fighter boasting impressive finish rates inside the circle, many felt a finish was inevitable, but what happened was nonetheless shocking.

De Ridder’s game plan was quite clear. Get Anatoly Malykhin to the mat and submit the big man before he can get his striking game going. It was something ‘The Dutch Knight’ had done time and time again, but this time he ran into an unexpected dilemma.

He couldn’t get Malykhin to the mat. After multiple attempts, each one more desperate than the last, de Ridder was forced to stand and trade with Malykhin.

With roughly 30 seconds to go in the opening round, Malykhin dropped a bomb in the form of an overhand right that caught de Ridder flush, sending him to the mat and allowing Malykhin to score an upset for the ages.

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Is Arjan Bhullar finally next for Anatoly Malykhin?

While Anatoly Malykhin has the world buzzing over his ONE light heavyweight world title win at ONE on Prime Video 5, the Russian juggernaut is still awaiting a world title unification bout with Arjan Bhullar, ONE Championship’s reigning heavyweight titleholder.

With Bhullar out of action for various reasons since May 2021, Malykhin took the opportunity to capture the interim heavyweight crown, knocking out Kirill Grishenko in February. Now that Anatoly Malykhin is a two-division world champion, he seems to have the attention of Bhullar once again to discredit Malykhin’s victory over Reinier de Ridder in a post on Instagram:

"He's not a 2 weight champ [ONE Championship] he's now the light heavyweight champ. It's easy to punch out a BJJ guy with 0 takedown ability. He did what he was supposed to. Let me do what I'm supposed to. I was told March earlier this week. Still waiting on the paperwork... "

Bhullar also revealed that he was cleared for action as of early November. Does this mean we will finally get the long-promised title unification showdown?