WATCH: Anatoly Malykhin captures light heavyweight MMA gold with horrifying KO finish of Reinier de Ridder

When Anatoly Malykhin grew tired of waiting for his unification match with Arjan Bhullar for the undisputed ONE heavyweight world title in 2022, he decided to go down a weight class and challenge the then-reigning ONE light heavyweight MMA world champion, Reinier de Ridder.

Their match was scheduled for the main event of ONE on Prime Video 5 in December 2022. Malykhin brutally took the world championship belt off De Ridder by knocking him out cold in the first round of their clash.

ONE Championship reposted the highlights of this match on their Instagram account recently and captioned the post with:

“Anatoly Malykhin secured a notable win! 😱 Who’s in line for the two-division ONE World Champion? 👑 @anmalykhin⁠#ONEChampionship #MMA #MartialArts”

‘The Dutch Knight’ was on the receiving end of Malykhin's wrath and hunger as he was punished with power punches since the opening bell sounded. ‘Sladkiy’ pounced on De Ridder with vicious punches before finishing him off in the last minute of the opening round with a lethal combination that removed him from his consciousness.

With the first-round knockout in the bag, the Russian became a two-division world champion and joined an elite list of athletes in the promotion who achieved the incredible feat.

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Anatoly Malykhin is ready for anyone that the promotion would pit against him

After his light heavyweight glory, Anatoly Malykhin unified the ONE heavyweight MMA world titles against Arjan Bhullar with a third-round TKO finish in June 2023 at ONE Friday Fights 22, which went down inside the legendary Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.

With him reigning in two divisions, Malykhin is expected to have a line of contenders challenging him for his throne. The 35-year-old has no problem fighting anyone that ONE Championship would give him as long as he becomes an active world champion.