Anatoly
Malykhin will go down in history as the first three-division
titleholder in a major promotion after recording a third-round
technical knockout over ONE
Championship middleweight boss Reinier
de Ridder in the
ONE 166 headliner on Friday at Lusail Sports Arena in Lusail,
Qatar. It ended 1:16 into Round 3.
Right from the opening bell, Malykhin began pressing his opponent
against the fence, unleashing powerful punches against “The Dutch
Knight,” who looked to clinch and land knees against his advancing
foe. De Ridder eventually managed to momentarily drop his opponent
with a punch-low kick combo in response to the Russian’s swift
punching attack. However, the combo did not seem to have much of an
impact on “Sladiky,” who popped right back to his feet. Towards the
end of the first frame, Malykhin got his foe to the ground with a
sneaky trip and looked to land some devastating ground-and-pound.
While de Ridder managed to find his way back to his feet, the
Russian continued pressing forward with punches and finished the
round strong.
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In the second frame, de Ridder initially found success in the
clinch with knees to the body and a snapping push kick. “The Dutch
Knight” then proceeded to shoot a single-leg takedown that was
swiftly defended by Malykhin, who sprung back to his feet and
refused to give de Ridder the chance to compete on the ground.
Malykhin got right back to stalking his foe after de Ridder got
stood up by the referee. While de Ridder managed to land an elbow
soon after, an unfazed Malykhin continued to press forward.
Although de Ridder’s constant lateral movement seemed to have
worked in his favor in the first frame, the Russian switched from
constantly headhunting to landing vicious hooks to the Dutchman’s
body, visibly slowing him down as Round 2 came to a close.
The third stanza commenced with Malykhin once again pushing his foe
to the fence with an onslaught of punches to the body and head. An
exhausted de Ridder shot for a takedown that was easily thwarted by
the Russian. Malykhin then proceeded to gain top position and began
to rain down heavy ground-and-pound, eventually sneaking in a
devastating knee before escaping a submission attempt and getting
back to his feet. Exhausted and clearly damaged by the knee to the
head, de Ridder was unable to respond to referee Herb Dean’s
calls to stand, forcing the official to call a stop to the
contest.
The undefeated Malykhin now holds the company’s middleweight, light
heavyweight and heavyweight championships.
In the co-main event, featherweight champion Kai Tang
walked away with a third-round technical knockout over and interim
titleholder Thanh Le in a
rematch for the undisputed belt.
In the opening round, the two competitors came out with a tentative
approach that saw both men feeling each other out and making reads.
While Tang managed to press his opponent back, neither fighter was
able to land anything substantial. The referee eventually issued
both competitors yellow cards for inactivity.
The second frame opened with Tang taking the center and eventually
landing a solitary left hook. The Chinese national then proceeded
to land two thunderous hooks, damaging Le’s nose. Tang seemed to
have found his rhythm by regularly landing body shots on the
interim champion, who also managed to land a stiff combo to damage
Tang’s nose. Regardless, as the round progressed, Tang managed to
do more damage while keeping his opponent on the back foot.
Both fighters received a second yellow card barely two minutes into
Round 3, once again due to inactivity. As the round progressed, Le
managed to take the center of the cage with single strikes, only to
be forced back by Tang’s body kicks and punches. Both fighters
continued to exchange on their feet and both managed to land
effective shots, although Tang seemed to be less fatigued. However,
with just 12 seconds remaining in the round, the Chinese national
uncorked a vicious right hook on Le against the cage and was quick
to jump on his downed adversary with ground-and-pound to secure a
finish.
The first title fight of the evening pitted strawweight champion
Jarred
Brooks against former titleholder Joshua
Pacio. It ended with a first-round disqualification loss for
Brooks due to an illegal slam. Brooks was able to secure a body
lock against Pacio after the former champion landed a thudding leg
kick. Soon after, “The Monkey God” slammed Pacio to the ground and
began to unload a barrage of punches, only to be stopped by Dean
and eventually informed that he was going to be disqualified.
Elsewhere, the only heavyweight clash on the card matched former
champion Arjan
Singh Bhullar with Amir
Aliakbari. It ended with a disqualification win for Aliakbari
at 4:13 of Round 3 due to Bhullar’s inactivity throughout the
three-round affair. He received two yellow cards and multiple
warnings before being issued a red card that signaled his
disqualification.
Additionally, Japan’s Keito
Yamakita walked away with a quick bulldog choke submission win
against ONE veteran Jeremy
Miado 4:04 into the first stanza of their strawweight
showcase.
In other action, Mehdi
Zatout earned a unanimous decision against Zuhayr
Al-Qahtani in a 147-pound catchweight boxing contest; Vladimir
Kuzmin fought his way to a unanimous decision against Zafer Sayik
in a catchweight muay thai clash at 147.75 pounds; Cleber
Sousa walked away with a reverse triangle armbar submission
against Osamah
Almarwai 5:31 into their grappling contest; Ali Saldoev
knocked out Zakaria
El Jamari 51 seconds into the second round of their
137.75-pound catchweight muay thai tilt; and Shinji
Suzuki clinched a unanimous decision over Han Zi Hao
in a bantamweight muay thai meeting.