ONE 166: Qatar has been handed an explosive main event – with Anatoly Malykhin seeking history as he looks to become a three-weight MMA world champion.
\nTo do so, he will renew an old rivalry with Reinier de Ridder with the ONE middleweight world title on the line – a win would add that gold to Malykhin’s current light-heavyweight and heavyweight crowns.
\nBeing a three-weight world champion is an almost unthinkable feat, and the stakes will be high for both men.
\nDe Ridder will be keen for lightning not to strike twice, as it was Malykhin who relived him of his light-heavyweight title when the pair met in December last year – a loss that was also the Dutchman’s first as a professional.
\nNow on Friday, March 1, the Russian superstar will move down a weight class again and attempt to become the first three-division MMA World Champion at Lusail Sports Arena in Qatar.
\nIn their previous bout, unlike anyone before him, Malykhin brilliantly defended takedowns from the long-limbed grappler and utilised his heavy boxing repertoire to knock out the Dutchman in the first round.
\nNow, all roads lead to the main event of ONE 166: Qatar, and each man has everything to fight for.
\nDe Ridder has a chance to even the score, hand Malykhin his first professional loss, and prove he is the best middleweight mixed martial artist on the planet.
\nBut for Malykhin, history is calling. If he defeats the Dutchman one more time, \u201cSladkiy\u201d would become the first three-division World Champion in MMA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ONE 166: Qatar has been handed an explosive main event \u2013 with Anatoly Malykhin seeking history as he looks to become a three-weight MMA world champion.
\nTo do so, he will renew an old rivalry with Reinier de Ridder with the ONE middleweight world title on the line \u2013 a win would add that gold to Malykhin\u2019s current light-heavyweight and heavyweight crowns.
\nBeing a three-weight world champion is an almost unthinkable feat, and the stakes will be high for both men.
\nDe Ridder will be keen for lightning not to strike twice, as it was Malykhin who relived him of his light-heavyweight title when the pair met in December last year \u2013 a loss that was also the Dutchman\u2019s first as a professional.
\nNow on Friday, March 1, the Russian superstar will move down a weight class again and attempt to become the first three-division MMA World Champion at Lusail Sports Arena in Qatar.
\nIn their previous bout, unlike anyone before him, Malykhin brilliantly defended takedowns from the long-limbed grappler and utilised his heavy boxing repertoire to knock out the Dutchman in the first round.
\nNow, all roads lead to the main event of ONE 166: Qatar, and each man has everything to fight for.
\nDe Ridder has a chance to even the score, hand Malykhin his first professional loss, and prove he is the best middleweight mixed martial artist on the planet.
\nBut for Malykhin, history is calling. If he defeats the Dutchman one more time, \u201cSladkiy\u201d would become the first three-division World Champion in MMA.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356039"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=356039"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":356040,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356039\/revisions\/356040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=356039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=356039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=356039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}