Two-weight ONE MMA World Champion Anatoly Malykhin has had an undeniable rise to the top of ONE Championship. Through his knockout power and verbal skills on the microphone, he’s proven to have both the gift of the gab and the gift of the jab. So he believes he could succeed in a future transition to pro wrestling.
His punching power has led him to victory 14 times in his career. Seven of those have come in ONE where he became the first-ever three-weight king in the promotion’s history. He stormed through former ONE World Title challenger Kirill Grishenko and former heavyweight king Arjan Bhullar at ONE Friday Fights 22 in June 2023.
Not only that, but he became the only man to defeat former two-weight ONE World Champion Reinier de Ridder. First at ONE on Prime Video 5 in December 2022 with a first-round knockout for the light-heavyweight MMA crown. Then at ONE 166 in Qatar to earn the middleweight gold, too.
He’s also no stranger to talking trash. Malykhin thrives when the stakes are the highest. He’s used the press conferences to get inside his opponents’ minds, using verbal jabs to poke holes in their armor.
That was on show in the lead-up to his heavyweight MMA clash with reigning heavyweight MMA champ “Reug Reug” Oumar Kane last November at ONE 169. And also being a heavyweight juggernaut, he ticks all the boxes to be a larger-than-life personality.
So when questioned about how he’d fare in wrestling, Malykhin is confident he could follow in the footsteps of fellow heavyweight Brock Lesnar.
“No, I haven’t thought about it. But I think I’d do alright. I’ve got a solid grappling base, I move well for a heavyweight, and I think I’ve got a bit of acting in me too,” he said.
“If they invited me — sure, I’d give it a shot. It’d be an interesting experience.”
