Oumar Kane Puts Heavyweight Crown On Line Against Anatoly Malykhin

The wait is finally over.

ONE Championship has confirmed that reigning ONE Heavyweight MMA World Champion "Reug Reug" Oumar Kane and two-division ONE World Champion Anatoly Malykhin will settle their unfinished business once and for all.

The two heavyweights collide in the main event of The Inner Circle on May 15, broadcasting live from Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.

The rivalry has been simmering since their first encounter at ONE 169 in 2024, when Malykhin walked in as ONE's first-ever three-division king with a perfect record and the aura of a man who had never faced a serious threat to his dominance.

Kane dismantled that narrative across five rounds, using his wrestling and extraordinary power to grind out a split-decision victory that stunned combat sports fans worldwide and made him Senegal's first-ever ONE Heavyweight MMA World Champion.

In doing so, he did not just hand Malykhin his first career loss. He took his heavyweight crown as well.

A rematch was immediately in demand. It was booked for ONE 173 in November 2025, only for Kane to suffer an accident in the UAE that forced him to withdraw, pushing one of the sport's most anticipated rematches into uncertainty.

The months that followed saw both fighters exchange pointed words online, keeping the rivalry in the public eye and ensuring that when the rematch was finally made official, the anticipation had reached its peak.

Malykhin arrives with an agenda that could not be more personal. The 38-year-old Russian retains the ONE Middleweight and Light Heavyweight MMA World Titles and carries a 14-1 career record with a 6-1 ONE record built entirely on finishes.

Every single one of his ONE victories has ended before the final bell, and he arrives in Bangkok with the same intent, fueled by the memory of a defeat that has defined the last chapter of his career.

Kane beat him once in one of ONE's greatest upsets. Malykhin has had over a year to figure out why, and he is coming to Bangkok for everything that was taken from him.