“Personally, my opinion of Malykhin as a triple champion – to me, it’s all a little bit not real,” Gadzhiev said in another installment on his Youtube channel. “Yes, it sounds cool – triple champion. I, as a marketer, would also make a big hype out of it, but it seems to me that it’s as if he has everything scheduled for five years ahead at ONE. There will be no serious opposition for Anatoly Malykhin at ONE”
“To people who are shallow on the subject, it sounds cool, but in fact, I think everyone who’s into MMA feels exactly the same way about this achievement. As an accomplishment, it makes me smile. There’s no legacy to it. Nobody in fifteen years, talking about the great heavyweights, will remember Anatoly Malykhin”
“Although I believe he’s the man who could have rattled Aspinall and John Jones, he’ll never do it because he’s in his comfort zone, in a nice warm place that’s still sprinkled abundantly with dollars. There’s no legacy in that, and he’ll make a mile of money. He’s doing great, but it’s not the way to go in martial arts history”
Recall that the title fight between Anatoly Malykhin and Rainier de Ridder, headlining ONE 166 in Qatar, ended at the 1:16 mark of the third round after the battered Dutchman refused to get up from the floor and continue the fight.