Anatoly Malykhin out to reclaim what he lost against Oumar Kane at The Inner Circle on May 15

He drifted from his wrestling. He lost the belt on a split decision. Now Anatoly Malykhin has returned to the system that made him a three-division world champion, and he is not leaving Bangkok without the heavyweight title.

Malykhin challenges ONE Heavyweight MMA World Champion Oumar “Reug Reug” Kane in a rematch at The Inner Circle, streaming live for members at live.onefc.com from Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, on Friday, May 15.

The 38-year-old Russian holds a 14-1 professional record and is the reigning ONE Middleweight and ONE Light Heavyweight MMA World Champion.

He lost the heavyweight belt to Kane at ONE 169 in November 2024 on a split decision, the first defeat of his career, after his output dropped and his wrestling failed to land in the championship rounds. The rematch was originally booked for ONE 173 in Tokyo last November before Kane was injured in a car accident.

Malykhin has spent the months since ONE 169 doing one thing: going back to what worked. More wrestling. More MMA sparring. Less deviation from the hard, grinding system that produced 14 consecutive wins. He did not reinvent himself. He rebuilt himself.

“As for me, I got smarter. I made adjustments to my preparation — more focus on wrestling, more MMA sparring. In the last fight, I moved slightly away from that system. Now, I’ve brought back my old system, hard training. I didn’t reinvent anything. I just returned to what made me strong,” he said.

“I’m not a different fighter. I’m the same Anatoly. The only thing is I’ve brought back my old, hard training, and I’m more focused now.”

Anatoly Malykhin wants a first-round knockout and a trilogy fight in Africa

Anatoly Malykhin respects nothing about Kane’s trash talk. He has studied the tape from their first fight closely, identified what Kane actually does inside the ring versus what he says outside of it, and built his second camp around exposing that gap.

The Senegalese champion has publicly dismissed Malykhin’s left hook as something he absorbed with ease at ONE 169. Malykhin pointed to photographic evidence from that night and moved on. He is not interested in words. He wants a finish, and he has already mapped out what comes after it.

“You can’t ignore my knockout power. I’ve finished all my opponents, and he’s next. If he says he ‘ate my left hook’ and didn’t feel it, there’s a photo that says otherwise. His lips were flying about 20 centimeters away from his face. That’s the reality,” he said.

“I’m preparing to knock him out. That’s always my goal. The fans know it. That’s why they come to watch my fights. In this fight, I’ll stay calm, stay sharp, and look for the finish. And I’ll get it in the first round, like always.”