Reinier de Ridder lauds Anatoly Malykhin’s ‘very f***** dangerous’ striking

Reigning ONE middleweight world champion Reinier de Ridder knows all too well how dangerous Anatoly Malykhin’s hands are.

‘The Dutch Knight’ stepped inside the Circle with the Russian juggernaut in 2022, and the results were nothing short of disastrous. Going into the bout with a 16-0 record, de Ridder had all the confidence in the world but was quickly brought back down to earth when he suffered a brutal first-round knockout, relinquishing his ONE light heavyweight world title in the process.

[Anatoly Malykhin’s] weapons are very f*cking dangerous,” de Ridder told the South China Morning Post. “I'm not trying to say anything disrespectful about him, of course. What he does, he does very well.”

This Friday, Malykhin will return at heavyweight for a long-awaited world title unification bout with reigning ONE heavyweight world champion Arjan Bhullar.

The two men have been on a collision course with one another ever since Malykhin won the interim heavyweight crown with a second-round knockout of Kirill Grishenko in February 2022. Nearly 16 months later, ONE Championship fans will finally find out who the best heavyweight in the world truly is.

For Arjan Bhullar, ONE Friday Fights 22 will represent his first time fighting in more than two years. In fact, Bhullar will be making his first appearance since capturing the heavyweight world title with an admittedly impressive knockout against division icon Brandon ‘The Truth’ Vera.

Fans in North America can catch all the action at ONE Friday Fights 22 live and for free on ONE Championship’s YouTube channel on June 23.