(Exclusive) Anatoly Malykhin Targets Francis Ngannou after ONE 169

MMA KO’s Drew Beaupré caught up with three-division ONE Championship titleholder Anatoly Malykhin ahead of his heavyweight title defense against Oumar “Reug Reug” Kane at ONE 169.

“Reug Reug” enters ONE 169 following a successful kickboxing debut at ONE Fight Night 23 and three-straight wins against formerly unbeaten fighters, but Malykhin fully intends to give the challenger an education in MMA when the pair meet in Bangkok.

“I consider him a fitness fighter, a fitness model fighter. So he is not a threat for me. I cannot wait…I want to cut him in the ring. I want him to feel the blood, I want him to feel what real fighting is. He needs to understand what [MMA is], he doesn’t know it yet. Because he needs to feel what it is like to be in the ring against a real fighter. The guys who he faced before – okay, undefeated, but they didn’t know how to box, they didn’t know how to wrestle. They almost looked scared already when they were coming into the ring. So I really want to do him a bit of a favor and teach him what MMA is, but I don’t feel that he’s a threat.”

“I wanna cut him across his forehead, so that his whole face is covered in blood so he can feel what MMA is. But you know what? I noticed that he’s scared, he gets really scared every time he has to enter the ring. He gets so scared that even a ghost – you know Casper, the ghost? You have this cartoon in America. That’s who can defeat him. Did you see his fight with [Kirill] Grishenko? How he fell from an invisible punch, I don’t know how that is possible, but my punches will be real…I think he definitely has one loss from a ghost, from Casper the ghost. Because he just can fall when there is no punches.”

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Malykhin and Kane have been given the honor of closing out a stacked ONE 169 card at Lumpinee Stadium. While the matchup is easily the biggest stage of Kane’s career, the champion isn’t feeling any pressure.

“I don’t feel nervous ever. Actually, what I feel is anticipation. I’m excited anticipating this fight. It’s a great card, and my fight, me, I will be the cherry on the cake. You know how I fight, so I like to give people a great show. I always take risks, I’m not a boring fighter. And I give people what they want, and people want a show. People love risk, so I take risks in my fights. I chase my opponents, and always looking for an opening to deliver a great knockout. So without any doubt, it will be my night. I will put the belt on my shoulder, and I will depart into the sunset.”

ONE 169 was originally supposed to take place in Altanta, GA before being moved to Bangkok, and while Malykhin was disappointed to miss out on a United States debut he has every intention of introducing himself to more American fans next year.

“It was important for me to have a debut in America, and yes I’m sad, maybe I’m disappointed that I didn’t get to see my American fans. It’s important to fight in the States because it’s a new audience, and I know that American audiences love KO’s, it loves fighters like me. It loves fighters who can be positive, funny…So of course I anticipated to be there, but you know, I think we don’t have to wait for too long until ONE Championship creates another amazing event in the States, so I hope I get to see all my American fans and I will be a cherry on the cake again.”

Malykhin has all kinds of options available to him after ONE 169 given that he holds three ONE Championship titles, but surprisingly his ideal fight for 2025 is a showdown with ex-UFC heavyweight champion and current PFL star Francis Ngannou.

“2025, for me, is a year when a really big fight should happen, that’s what I want. Because Ngannou, Francis Ngannou, recently said that he’s the best fighter on the planet, which he cannot and should not be saying until he faces me. So my fight against Ngannou is something that needs to happen in 2025. I think everybody looks forward to that, everybody wants that fight, and we need to have it to decide once and for all who is the best heavyweight in the world right now.”

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Ngannou made his return to MMA for the first time since January 2022 when he debuted at PFL Super Fights: Battle of the Giants and knocked out Renan Ferreira in October. Malykhin believes “The Predator” has some stiff competition in the PFL’s heavyweight division, but he’s still eager to square off with him at some point in the future.

“Definitely, Francis Ngannou is a strong fighter. I watched his fight [with Ferreira], he’s got a great skillset. He has got some great opposition in PFL, that’s Oleg Popov, who’s definitely gonna win the [heavyweight tournament]. Everybody needs to keep his eyes on Popov, this guy is going to be absolutely amazing. I can see great things coming for him. And of course there is Vadim Nemkov, who is another amazing Russian fighter. And as for Ngannou, I think that it was more of a psychological pressure for him to come back into the ring after such a long break from MMA. But I think he did well, he did well. But his words after the fight, I think were a little bit premature. He shouldn’t have said that he is the greatest heavyweight in the world.”

ONE 169 takes place this Friday (November 8) at Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok Thailand, and the stacked card also features two other title fights in addition to the highly-anticipated main event between Malykhin and Kane.

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