I am Going To Hurt Him: Anatoly Malykhin Promises Knockout Of Reinier De Ridder

Anatoly Malykhin’s dominance in ONE Championship’s heavyweight category has been nothing short of impressive. 

After obtaining the ONE Interim Heavyweight World Championship last February, the Russian slugger was growing tired of waiting on ONE Heavyweight World Champion Arjan Bhullar to unify belts. 

Not one for sitting on the sidelines, Malykhin decided to move down to face two-division ONE World Champion Reinier de Ridder for his light Heavyweight belt in the main event of ONE Fight Night 5 on Saturday, 3 December.

ALSO READ | ONE Fight Night 5: Reinier De Ridder and Anatoly Malykhin to lock horns

With the Dutchman holding both the ONE Middleweight and Light Heavyweight World Titles, it only made sense for the Russian to go after a second strap.

“I'm excited about challenges like this,” Malykhin said ahead of his clash at the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila, Philippines. 

“He's a great fighter, and I will be happy to share the Circle with him. I'm sure it will be the event of the year. We'll show a beautiful fight that will get millions of views. I was approached at a [show] and offered a fight with him, but I was huge, so we took a couple of days to discuss it with the manager and the team. In the end, we accepted the fight and decided to cut weight.”

Despite the mutual respect between the colossal duo, the bout is personal for Malykhin. In De Ridder’s last outing at ONE 159 in July, he faced Malykhin’s compatriot, Vitaly Bigdash, who “The Dutch Knight” put to sleep with a triangle choke inside round one.

On the back of his friend’s defeat, Malykhin is not entering the bout with vengeful emotions. However, “Sladkiy” feels he will be able to knock out the undefeated titan.

“I know Vitaly well, we trained together,” the ONE Interim Heavyweight World Champion said. 

“He has his own path and his own challenges. I am not Vitaly, I am me, so it will be a different situation. Vitaly is a real [fighter], and there is no need to avenge him. 

“I think I'll finish the fight before the second round. I'll go out there, and I'll hunt for his head. I'll chase him, I'll punch him, maybe he'll try to impose his grappling on me, but I'll break the grip. I'm going to hit him in the body, in the head. I'm going to hurt him. I don't think he'll go the whole distance.”

ALSO READ | Reinier De Ridder puzzled about the situation of Arjan Bhullar in ONE

ONE Fight Night 5: De Ridder vs. Malykhin takes place on Saturday, 3 December, at the Mall of Asia in Manila, Philippines. Tickets can be purchased here: https://smtickets.com/events/view/11438

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