ONE Championship: Anatoly Malykhin to ‘smash’ Buchecha after beating Arjan Bhullar ‘on one leg’
- Undisputed heavyweight MMA champ wastes no time in laying out his future plans after settling long-running feud with Bhullar
- Malykhin reveals injury scare after leaving Lumpinee Stadium in a wheelchair despite dominant display at ONE Friday Fights 22
Anatoly Malykhin has wasted no time in laying out his future plans after becoming the undisputed heavyweight MMA king of ONE Championship.
The 35-year-old Russian (13-0) unified his interim title with Arjan Bhullar’s belt at ONE Friday Fights 22 last weekend in Bangkok, scoring a third-round TKO at Lumpinee stadium.
With more than 18 months of bad blood finally settled, “Sladskiy” has no intention to wait around for his next challenge – despite an injury scare that saw him leave the arena in a wheelchair.
“One month before the fight, I already had a pinched nerve and I worried about it. In the fight it was a little bit worrying and was disturbing me again,” Malykhin told the Post via a translator on Saturday morning.
“But now I’m ready to check it. I had two X-rays after the fight. I won with one leg. If my leg was better, this guy [Bhullar] would not be alive until the third round.
“It would have already been finished in the first round. I promise that nobody will be alive until the third round again.”
Next on his agenda, if it were up to him, is a bid to win a third divisional title against his old rival Reinier de Ridder.