Russian ONE Championship star Anatoly Malykhin has retired as a three-division champion.
At Friday’s ONE Friday Fights 154 at the Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Malykhin faced off with Senegalese wrestler “Reug Reug,” properly Oumar Kane, for the second time. The pair had first met in November of 2024 at ONE 169, with Kane winning a split decision – the first defeat of Malykhin’s career, and one that cost him his heavyweight title.
Though holding both middleweight and light heavyweight gold in ONE Championship (having won both titles from current UFC middleweight Reinier de Ridder), Malykhin waited, patiently, for his rematch with Kane. First expected to take place last year, a car accident saw “Reug Reug” withdraw from their fight at ONE 173.
Instead, the bout went down on Friday as part of The Inner Circle fights, exclusively for ONE fans. And this time, Malykhin got his revenge, finding the knockout just under two minutes into the fourth round.
With Oumar Kane failing to utilize his wrestling for the most part, what ensued was a chess-like kickboxing match-up at times. In the fourth frame, with Kane backed into a corner, not all that different from scenes in the pair’s first fight, Malkhin connected, a right hand rocking “Reug Reug” and sending him back against the ropes. Already badly hurt, Kane was close to out and a couple more blows – punches, then knees – from Malykin put him away, leading to a chaotic scene where both teams and officials poured into the ring.
Kane was seen rolling to his knees, stepped over, while his team had to be restrained, clearly unhappy with the outcome (or perhaps with the knees, which may have been deemed unnecessary, though knees to a downed opponent are legal in ONE).
After the bout, Anatoly Malykhin removed his gloves, signaling his retirement. Promotion officials later confirmed that the Russian had in fact called it a career, ending his time as MMA’s only triple champion in a major promotion.
Malykhin ends his professional fighting career at age 38 with a 15-1 record and wins over Kane, de Ridder, UFC vet Arjan Bhullar, Kirill Grishenko, and RIZIN alum Amir Aliakbari, among others.