“I have ambitions as a coach”

While he’s yet to hang up the gloves, reigning ONE light heavyweight world champion Anatoly Malykhin sees himself as a trainer when his fighting days are over.

‘Sladkiy’, who is also the interim ONE World Heavyweight Champion, shared in an interview with ONE Championship that training is something he wants to pursue as a post-fight career, especially now that he recently opened a training center in Thailand for elite mixed martial artists.

Anatoly Malikhin said:

“I have ambitions as a trainer. I see myself training after finishing my fighting career. The gymnasium was also opened as a base for our team – ONE Chance. Our fighters can train here. Champions will be created here. They will give audiences great performances. They will impress audiences and land big contracts.

The 35-year-old Russian juggernaut is undefeated in 12 MMA matches as a professional, including four in the ONE Championship, where he made his debut in 2021.

In his short time with ONE, he dominated the competition in devastating fashion, winning all of his fights by knockout.

Anatoly Malikhin won the interim world heavyweight title in his third bout in February 2022, beating Belarusian Kirill Grishenko by second-round knockout. He then finished last year by adding the ONE world light heavyweight title when he knocked out then-champion Reinier de Ridder of the Netherlands in the first round.

He is now looking to become the undisputed ONE world heavyweight champion in a unification bout against reigning champion Arjan Bhullar, which was recently announced to take place in July this year at ONE Fight Night 12 in Bangkok.

Anatoly Malykhin’s unification fight against Arjan Bhullar was previously booked to headline ONE Fight Night 8 in March until the promotion decided to postpone it.

All ONE Fight Night events are streamed live and free to North American fans with an active Prime Video subscription.