Anatoly Malykhin will look to reclaim the heavyweight title he lost earlier this year.
ONE Championship has officially announced that reigning ONE heavyweight champion Oumar ‘Reug Reug’ Kane will put his title on the line against the very man he took it from when the promotion heads back to Ariake Arena in Tokyo for ONE 173 on Sunday, November 16.
Kane claimed the title from Malykhin at ONE 169 in November 2024, narrowly defeating the former three-division titleholder via a somewhat controversial split decision. ‘Reug Reug’ rides into The Land of the Rising Sun on a five-fight win streak, including a first-round KO against Boucher Ketchup in his kickboxing debut last summer.
Meanwhile, Malykhin is coming off the first loss of his professional career. Not only did the closely contested loss to Kane cost him his undefeated record, but it also ended his reign as MMA’s first and only three-division champion.
Malykhin still holds the ONE middleweight and light heavyweight titles, but with a lack of challengers in those divisions, ‘Sladkiy’ is focused on one thing — avenging his lone loss and reclaiming the 26 pounds of ONE gold he surrendered to the Senegalese sensation.
Superbon vs. Noiri joins Malykhin vs. ‘Reug Reug’ 2 in Tokyo
Also announced for the event was a unification bout between reigning ONE featherweight kickboxing world champion Superbon and interim titleholder Masaaki Noiri.
In March, Noiri shocked the world with a stunning third-round TKO of Tawanchai to win the temporary title, setting the stage for a scrap with one of the P4P best kickboxers on the planet.
Though he’s coming off a failed attempt to add Muay Thai gold to his collection, Superbon is still one of the most feared fighters in eight-ounce gloves under the ONE banner, earning back-to-back wins against Tayfun Ozcan and former three-time GLORY Kickboxing champion Marat Grigorian.
