While he’s not hanging up his gloves yet, reigning ONE Light Heavyweight World Champion Anatoly Malykhin sees himself as a trainer when his boxing days are over.
‘Sladkiy’, who is also ONE’s interim world heavyweight champion, shared in an interview with ONE Championship that training is something he is interested in pursuing as a post-fight career, even more so now that he has recently opened a training center. training in Thailand for elite mixed martial arts competitors.
Anatoly Malykhin said:
“I have ambitions as a coach. I see myself training after finishing my wrestling career. The gym was also opened as a base for our team: ONE Chance. Our fighters can train here. Champions will be made here. They will give the public great shows. They will impress the public and get big contracts.”
The 35-year-old Russian giant has been undefeated in 12 MMA matches as a professional, including four at ONE Championship, where he made his debut in 2021.
In a short time with ONE, he has dominated the competition in devastating fashion, winning all of his fights by knockout.
Anatoly Malykhin won the interim world heavyweight title in just his third fight in February 2022, defeating Belarusian Kirill Grishenko by knockout in the second round. 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 now looks to become ONE’s undisputed world heavyweight champion in a unification fight 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.