A clash with historical implications has been added to ONE Championship’s debut in the Middle East. 

At ONE 166: Qatar set for Friday, March 1 at the Lusail Sports Arena, ONE Heavyweight and Light Heavyweight MMA World Champion Anatoly Malykhin will face Reinier De Ridder for the middleweight MMA crown in an attempt to become the promotion’s first three-division World Champion.

Anatoly Malykhin ready to take on Reinier De Ridder

It will be the second time that the hulking Russian moves down a weight class to challenge “The Dutch Knight” for ONE gold. 

In their initial encounter at ONE on Prime Video 5 in December 2022, both men entered their match as undefeated World Champions as Malykhin moved down to challenge De Ridder for one of his belts.

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It ended with a colossal first-round knockout of De Ridder, putting an end to his dominant MMA run at 16 wins. “Sladkiy” claimed his 12th straight victory via knockout and cemented his status as the ONE MMA Fighter of the Year in 2022.

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He went on to continue his incredible run this year by claiming another huge win at ONE Friday Fights 22 in June. In his ONE Heavyweight MMA World Championship unification bout against Arjan Bhullar, the 35-year-old faced the toughest challenge of his promotional tenure as he reached the third round for the first time. He ultimately knocked out “Singh” to become the undisputed heavyweight king.

De Ridder to avenge his loss against Malykhin

Now, he wants to make good on his promise by taking De Ridder’s remaining strap. Of course, the Combat Brothers representative will have vengeance on his mind in their rematch. 

Since his loss to Malykhin, he has only seen action in a submission grappling contest against Tye Ruotolo at ONE Fight Night 10 in ONE’s debut in the United States back in May. While he narrowly lost to the young phenom, the Breda, Netherlands-based fighter showed that his lethal grappling game continues to be on a world-class level. 

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Despite Malykhin’s dominant win over him in their initial outing, De Ridder has been virtually unstoppable in the middleweight ranks and will certainly look to continue that run in their rematch. 

Their monumental clash is the second World Title fight announced for the historic card, with the battle for the ONE Strawweight MMA World Championship between reigning king Jarred Brooks and Joshua Pacio announced earlier this month.