The title fight, which took center stage at ONE 166 in Qatar, ended in the third round after an exhausted and battered de Ridder refused to get back up and continue the fight, making another unsuccessful attempt to put Malykhin on the ground.
The Russian made his fans nervous in the first round when he missed a straight right hand and went down. Malykhin did not appear rattled, however, and quickly found his way back into the fight as he continued to press his opponent near the net, pestering him with a series of powerful punches to the head and body.
As a reminder, in December 2022, Russian fighter de Ridder took his ONE heavyweight title by winning the fight by technical knockout in the first round, and last June, Anatoly Malykhin successfully unified the current and interim ONE heavyweight titles by finishing Arjan Bullard by technical knockout in the third round.
With another fight against de Ridder, 36-year-old Anatoly Malykhin celebrated his fourteenth professional victory, five of them under the Asian League banner. The Russian finished all of his opponents early, winning ten fights by knockout and four by submission.