If you’re purely an American mixed martial arts fan, there is a good chance you’ve never heard of Anatoly Malykhin.
ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong wants to change that while also promoting his light heavyweight and heavyweight champion as a world-beater capable of toppling Francis Ngannou and current UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
Speaking to the media on LowKick MMA, Sityodtong told a reporter that Malykhin would defeat both Ngannou and Jones “quite easily.”
You can watch the entire interview below, but the segment about the heavyweight matchups begins at 29:00.
Malykhin has had an impressive career as a mixed martial artist.
The 36-year-old Russian is the only three-division champion in mixed martial arts history, having captured ONE’s middleweight, light heavyweight, and heavyweight championships. Malykhin owns two wins over recent UFC signing and former ONE light heavyweight and heavyweight champion Reinier de Ridder.
Malykhin has also finished all of his opponents in official MMA bouts with ten KOs and three submission victories.
Malykhin, listed at six feet even, would be giving up tons of size against Ngannou and Jones.
While powerful, he may find it challenging to secure the power double-leg takedown that Sityodtong mentioned in his interview against Ngannou or Jones. While Jones has never been known as a one-strike KO threat, he has been adept at keeping distance against excellent wrestlers like Daniel Cormier, whom he beat twice.
Is Malykhin a better fighter than Cormier? Is he better than a prime Stipe Miocic or Alistair Overeem? We’ll never know the answer to those questions. If nothing else, Sityodtong has brought more eyes to arguably the biggest star in his promotion. Malykhin’s next fight is against Senegalese heavyweight Oumar Kane for the ONE Championship.
Kane has only had seven professional MMA fights and has a record of 6-1. With all due respect to Kane, this kind of opponent makes critics doubt the validity of Sityodtong’s claims. Throughout history, big-name free agents and newcomers from other promotions have not come to the UFC and dominated.
Cormier, who came from Strikeforce, became a world champion in two divisions, but he went to the UFC after competing in Strikeforce against some of the biggest and best in the sport. Also, the UFC wasn’t as far out ahead of its competition as it has become over the past 15 years. Cormier had also been an Olympian.
Perhaps we’ll see Malykhin accomplish more and add more evidence to Sityodtong’s claims of his greatness and superiority over the world’s top heavyweights.
Ngannou is back in action on October 19 to face Renan Ferreira in the main event of PFL Super Fights PPV: Battle of the Giants in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Jones will defend his UFC Heavyweight title against Miocic on November 16 at Madison Square Garden in the main event of UFC 309.
