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.

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Kane (7-1) won the title off Malykhin, the first-ever triple champ in a major promotion, in a split decision back in November of 2024. He was expected to defend his belt in a rematch last year, but the bout was postponed when the Senegalese wrestler was injured in a car accident.

Malykhin, likewise, has been waiting on the sidelines ever since.

Where to Watch ONE Friday Fights 154

ONE Friday Fights 154 takes place on Friday, May 15, 2026 at the Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand. Inner Circle fights are available via the ONE Championship website, while the main card streams live on Youtube for western fight fans. Full results from the event can be found below; the action gets underway at 7:30AM ET, 4:30AM PT.

ONE Friday Fights 154

Samingdam NF Looksuan def. Yodphupa Petkiatpet by unanimous decision
Rungnarai Kiatmoo9 def. Den Sitnayoktaweeptaphong by unanimous decision
Elvin Mammadov def. Sanit Aekmuangnon by TKO, Round 2, 2:56
Anouwat Merlet def. Dafi Sor Dechapan by unanimous decision
Saenmuangnoi PK Saenchai def. Asura Thiagesh by unanimous decision
Mahesuan Aekmuangnon def. Aung Tun Bo by TKO, Round 2, 2:50
Semih Sah Cindir def. Wang Penghui by split decision
Sulaiman NF Looksuan def. Juan Martinez by majority decision
Denis Dotsenko def. Hiroki Suzuki by TKO, Round 1, 1:35

The Inner Circle

Anatoly Malykhin def. Oumar Kane (c) by knockout, Round 4, 1:54 – for the ONE heavyweight championship
Kade Ruotolo def. Hiroyuki Tetsuka by knockout, Round 2, 2:02
Abdulla Dayakaev def. Superlek by split decision
Mia Trevorrow def. Kokoz by unanimous decision

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Heavyweight champ “Reug Reug,” properly Oumar Kane, was to rematch Anatoly Malykhin at the event, after taking the Russian’s heavyweight title late last year. The Senegalese wrestler, however, has been forced out of the event after being involved in a serious car crash.

The Bangkok Times was among those reporting the news. Malykhin has been removed from the event and will not face a replacement. A new date is expected to be scheduled once Kane becomes available.

No details on the heavyweight champ’s condition have been provided by his team.

“Reug Reug” earned a split decision win to capture the third of Malykhin’s three ONE Championship titles at ONE 169 last November. He has not fought since. The hulking 33-year old is 7-1 since transitioning to MMA and holds a win over current UFC heavyweight Marcus Almeida, better known as “Buchecha.”

Malylhin still holds ONE’s middleweight and light heavyweight titles, having defeated current UFC middleweight contender Reinier de Ridder to win both. He holds victories over former UFC heavyweight Arjan Bhullar, and RIZIN alum Amir Aliakbari among others.

ONE 173 takes place in Tokyo, Japan on November 16, 2025 and is headlined by a featherweight kickboxing title fight featuring current champ Superbon and interim champ Masaaki Noiri. A full five title fights split between MMA, Muay Thai, and Kickboxing remain on the card.

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ONE 173 is set to take place at the Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan on November 16, 2025, and on Monday, promotion officials announced two big fights for the event. In the main event, ONE featherweight Muay Thai champion Superbon will take on interim champ Masaaki Noiri in a title unification bout.

Of note to MMA fans, heavyweight champion Oumar Kane, popularly known as Reug Reug, will face Anatoly Malykhin for the second time. That heavyweight title clash will serve as the night’s co-main event.

Aside from a single fight in ARES FC at the start of his career, Senegal’s Kane (7-1) has spent the entirety of his MMA career with ONE Championship. He holds wins over Alain Ngalani and Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida, the latter of which earned Kane a title fight with Malykhin.

In November of last year, Reug Reug earned a split decision win over Malykhin to claim heavyweight gold at ONE 169. That stripped Malykhin (14-1) of one of his three ONE world championships — he also holds gold at middleweight and light heavyweight, defeating Reinier de Ridder to capture both.

Malykhin defeated UFC veteran Arjan Bhullar to win the promotion’s heavyweight title in 2023.

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The hulking Oumar “Reug Reug” Kane had become a fan favorite upon entering the promotion, with the Senegalese wrestler amassing a 5-1 record in the company after making the switch from ARES FC. He was looking to dethrone MMA’s first triple-champ, Anatoly Malykhin, who held ONE’s middleweight, light heavyweight, and heavyweight titles.

The fight wasn’t what you would call an action-packed affair, often drawing jeers from a crowd that was no doubt hoping from a big finish from the two big men. Instead, a grueling, grappling-heavy contest played out, a close fight that saw the ref intervene on multiple occasions, both for fouls and lack of action.

The massive Reug Reug got his wrestling going early, taking the takedown route and forcing Malykhin to work his way back up after blasting his way into an entry. Controlling from the back, Kane stayed heavy on Malykhin, who used the ropes to keep himself standing – earning a stern warning from referee Herb Dean, who threatened to issue a yellow card were the infraction to repeat itself.

Off the restart, it was Kane again pursuing a takedown, heavy on the champ but unable to land it. The crowd didn’t love it, and Dean urged the pair to work; again, Malykhin used the ropes to stay upright. True to his word, Dean issued a yellow card, then restarted the action with Kane in control.

Malykhin attempted to flip the script in round two, with the champ putting Reug Reug’s back on the ropes. Kane circled out, fired a right and clinched up. The ref then halted the action, warning Kane for grabbing his opponent’s gloves; an irate Anatoly Malykhin opted to restart the fight at center rather than take his position back. Through two rounds, ref Herb Dean was as much of a factor as either man actually in the fight, allowing absolutely nothing to slide. They would end up back on the ropes anyway, Malykhin pursuing a takedown he couldn’t land, with the ref restarting the action at center with under a minute left in the round. The remaining seconds of the fight saw Malykhin get his hands, and kicks, going.

Round three saw a firefight break out in the opening minute, with Malykhin landing more than once, and Kane proving to have an admirable chin. But again, the ref was forced to intervene when Reug Reug held the gloves of the champ. On the restart, Malykhin ripped the body and fired overhands up top. Kane answered back, firing his left but the champ was having more success, landing more, with more power, and cleaner. More exchanges in the corner would follow, with Malykhin sporting a cut, even while continuing the have the edge in standup. Herb Dean would break up a clinch late in the round, after which, for the first time in his career, Reug Reug would enter the championship rounds.

The glove grabbing warnings for Kane continued in round four, though ref Dean opted to restart the pair when the action slowed, rather than going the yellow card route. Malykhin, meanwhile, drove in on a takedown, putting Kane’s back on the fence. That position would be taken away by the ref, who didn’t like the work, or lack thereof, that he was seeing. If anything, Kane had slowed, and in the final minute, the champ connected would a couple of right hands that had Reug Reug retreating, head snapping back. Oumar Kane would land a left hand, and a few kicks, before heading to round five.

Reug Reug landed a left hand early in round five, appearing to hurt Malykhin, though he may have been off balance. The champ then had to fight off a takedown attempt, which he did. Still, the momentum appeared to have shifted in the challenger’s favor. Yet again, as Reug Reug pursued a takedown, ref Dean didn’t like what he was seeing, taking the pair back to center – where Malykhin had the edge. He punched his way in, then drove Kane back against the ring post.

In the end, the pair went the distance, in a fight that had sporadic bursts of action, and a whole lot of positional battles. Come the judges’ scorecards, a split decision was announced – with Reug Reug getting the nod from two of three judges. That gives Oumar Kane his first major championship in MMA, with his record improving to 7-1 in the process. He also becomes the first African champ in ONE Championship history.

Official Result: Oumar Kane def. Anatoly Malykhin by split decision

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Following the smaller ONE Friday Fights 86 (Friday morning for western fight fans), ONE 169 had a little something for everyone. Muay Thai star Rodtang was in action, though his fight against Jacob Smith had been marred by the man who had been champ missing weight. Not the first weight miss for Rodtang, but this one cost him his flyweight title and made him ineligible to win it back.

In kickboxing action, strawweights Jackie Buntan and Anissa Meksen faced off with a vacant title on the line. But it was the man who held three belts, Anatoly Malykhin, driving the card, looking to defend heavyweight gold against the physically imposing “Reug Reug,” properly Oumar Kane. MMA’s first triple champ, Malykhin had defeated Reinier de Ridder to claim light heavyweight gold, stopped UFC alum Arjan Bhullar to claim the heavyweight strap, then finished de Ridder again to capture a middleweight crown without missing a step.

Where to Watch ONE 169

Fans in the U.S. and Canada can stream the latest ONE Championship card live on Prime Video. The action goes down at the Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand on Friday, November 8, 2024.

ONE 169: Malykhin vs. Kane Results

Oumar Kane def. Anatoly Malykhin (c) by split decision – for the ONE Heavyweight MMA World Championship
Rodtang Jitmuangnon def. Jacob Smith by unanimous decision – for the ONE Flyweight Muay Thai World Championship / Only Smith eligible to win title
Jackie Buntan def. Anissa Meksen by unanimous decision – for the ONE Strawweight Kickboxing World Championship
Adriano Moraes def. Danny Kingad by submission (guillotine choke), Round 2, 4:14
Kongthoranee Sor Sommai def. Tagir Khalilov by unanimous decision – Muay Thai
Kade Ruotolo def. Ahmed Mujtaba by submission (D’arce choke), Round 1, 1:04
Sam-A Gaiyanghadao def. Zhang Peimian by unanimous decision – Kickboxing
Marcus Almeida def. Amir Aliakbari by submission (rear-naked choke), Round 1, 3:15
Mohamed Younes Rabah def. Eddie Abasolo by unanimous decision – Muay Thai
Ayaka Miura def. Macarena Aragon by submission (scarf-hold Americana), Round 1, 2:20
Aliff Sor Dechapan def. Walter Goncalves by unanimous decision – Muay Thai

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ONE Championship officials announced that match-up and two other title fights for the Atlanta card on Friday. The event takes place on November 8, 2024 at the State Farm Arena.

Lee (17-4) has not fought since 2022, taking time away from the sport following the tragic passing of sister Victoria late that year. Victoria, Christian, and the now-retired Angela Lee all competed for ONE Championship, with younger sibling Adrian joining them earlier this year.

A two-time champ at lightweight, Lee captured the promotion’s welterweight title as well in his last outing, when he defeated Kiamrian Abbasov via TKO in the fourth round of their meeting at ONE on Prime Video 4.

Christian Lee holds notable wins over Shinya Aoki, Timofey Nastyukhin, and Ok Rae Yoon, and holds records for ONE Championship including most wins, finishes, and knockouts in the promotion’s history.

Turkey’s Alibeg Rasulov is another stiff test. He’s a perfect 14-0 thus far in his career, and is coming off a win over Ok Rae Yoon earlier this month.

The other two title fights announced on Friday see “Reug Reug,” properly Ourmar Kane, challenging Anatoly Malykhin for heavyweight gold, while a third fight between featherweight Muay Thai champ Tawanchai and Smokin’ Joe Nuttawut rounds out the trio.

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ONE 169 will be just the third event the promotion has hosted in the United States. ONE first came to the states in May of 2023 with ONE Fight Night 10: Johnson vs. Moraes III in Colorado. And it was announced, in March, that the promotion will again travel to Colorado for ONE 168: Denver. A star-studded card featuring: Stamp Fairtex, Jonathan Haggerty, Mikey Musumeci and Liam Harrison, among others.

ONE’s heavyweight champion, Anatoly Malykhin (14-0), also the ONE middleweight and light heavyweight champion will be making his first defense of any of his belts. Malykhin, unified the heavyweight title by finishing the champ, Arjan Bhullar, in the third round of their 2023 title unification fight.

‘Reug Reug’ (6-1) turned pro in just 2019. The Senegalese fighter, trained in the traditional combat art of his region, mbapatte wrestling, and has had a meteoric rise thru the ranks. Reug Reug is a tank of a man, and both fighters have 18 finishes between them.

Tawanchai P.K. Saenchai and Jo Nattawut will look to settle the score again, after the controversial decision at ONE 167. Tawanchai stole a majority decision over Jo Nattawut for the ONE muay thai featherweight championship, a little over a week ago. The pair’s first meeting was in October 2023 when Tawanchai won a unanimous decision over ‘Smokin’ Jo.

Now, Jo will have a bit of homefield advantage as the fighter has lived and trained in Georgia for the past decade.

Fights are scheduled to be in State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia. The arena underwent 234 million dollars’ worth of renovations from 2017 to 2018. It’s hosted four MMA events, most recently in 2019. (UFC 88, UFC 145, UFC 201, UFC 236)

Tickets for ONE 169 will go on sale to the public on Friday, July 12th and pre-sale starts Friday, July 5th.

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Holland’s submission sensation de Ridder had been a two-division champion in his own right before Russia’s Malykhin moved down from heavyweight to fight him, taking his belt, and his undefeated record, via first-round knockout in a dominant performance. He then unified the heavyweight title by stopping Arjan Bhullar, to improve to 13-0.

RDR welcomed Malykhin to his weight and so would be the smaller man once again. It was up to him to change the flow of the fight this time, enforce his grappling on the Russian powerhouse, and stop Anatoly from becoming a three-weight champion. He gave his best effort, but in the end Malykhin was just too much for him.

Malykhin hurt RDR with an uppercut early but de Ridder clinched up to stifle him. However, Anatoly reversed it and used dirty boxing on the Dutchman. Renier did not have much of an answer in the striking at first, but a leg kick took out Malykhin’s lead leg for a moment, two minutes in. Malykhin continued his assault, while defending in the clinch each time when RDR tried to entangle him there. His overpursuit on his big punches led to him often falling into that clinch, but he still damaged de Ridder on the way in. Anatoly’s body work was also effective. RDR landed a sneaky lead head kick late in the first round, but Malykhin ate it, kept walking him down, and won the round.

Malykhin got right back to business in the second, damaging de Ridder early and defending a single-leg takedown attempt. RDR rolled to his back to play guard but the HW champ welcomed him back to his feet. De Ridder had stated that he wanted to drag Malykhin into deep waters, but the consistent body work of Anatoly made Reneir appear to be the more tired party as he got walked down. The flow of the fight did not change in the rest of the round; de Ridder’s face was a mess by the end of ten minutes, with his left eye nearly closed.

The double champ did not even appear tired at all when the third round started. He kept walking down the defending champion and stopping all his takedown attempts. One poor single leg attempt allowed Malykhin a chance for ground and pound, including a knee to the head. De Ridder tried and failed a hail Mary triangle choke, but Anatoly got out of it and told RDR to stand back up. Herb Dean insisted that if Reneir did not stand back up then he would stop the fight; it seemed to take an eternity for him to just get to his knees, where he stayed, forcing Herb Dean to stop the fight.

It was a struggle to wrap three huge, golden belts around even a man as big as Anatoly Malykhin, but in the end they did it so he could show off his historic achievement as the first three-weight MMA champion in a major promotion in the history of the sport. He declared his joy to the world, his appreciation for ONE Championship, and celebrated with his wife in his interview. Then Malykhin embraced Reneir de Ridder and told the world to respect him as a warrior, an elite fighter, and a family man in a display of good sportsmanship. It was a truly eclectic post-fight interview at ONE 166, but one fitting of his incredible achievement, as was the $50,000 bonus he received from the promotion.

Official Result: Anatoly Malykhin def. Reinier de Ridder (c) by TKO, Round 3, 1:16

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The main event represented yet another chance for a fighter to make history as a triple champ in MMA, with Anatoly Malykhin, already holding heavyweight and light heavyweight gold, went after Reinier de Ridder’s middleweight title. Patricio Pitbull and Salahdine Parnasse had both tried to achieve triple champ status in 2023 only to fall short. Could Malykhin succeed where others had failed?

ONE’s biggest MMA card in a year also featured a featherweight title unification bout, as champ Tang Kai met interim title hold Thanh Le, the man he had originally defeated to claim gold. Le had submitted Ilya Freymanov in October to claim the interim championship.

Finally, strawweight champion Jarred Brooks looked to continue his impressive post-UFC run when he ran things back with ex-champ Joshua Pacio.

Boxing, submission grappling, and Muay Thai action were also in store for fight fans in Qatar.

Where to Watch ONE 166: Qatar

ONE Championship’s much anticipated debut in Qatar takes place Friday, March 1, 2024 at the Lusail Sports Arena. Where available, the card streams live and free online in the video embed below. Full results from Friday’s event can also be found below. The action gets underway at 7:30AM ET, 4:30AM PT for fight fans in the west.

ONE 166: Qatar Results

Anatoly Malykhin def. Reinier de Ridder (c) by TKO, Round 3, 1:16 — for the ONE middleweight championship
Tang Kai (c) def. Thanh Le (ic) by TKO, Round 3, 4:48 — for the ONE featherweight championship / title unification bout
Joshua Pacio def. Jarred Brooks (c) by DQ (spike), Round 1, 0:56 — for the ONE strawweight championship
Amir Aliakbari def. Arjan Bhullar by DQ, Round 3, 4:15
Mehdi Zatout def. Zuhayr Al-Qahtani by unanimous decision — Boxing
Vladimir Kuzmin def. Zafer Sayik by unanimous decision — Muay Thai
Cleber Sousa def. Osamah Almarwai by submission (arm-bar), 5:31 — Submission Grappling
Ali Saldoev def. Zakaria El Jamari by knockout, Round 2, 0:51 — Muay Thai
Shinji Suzuki def. Han Zi Hao by unanimous decision — Muay Thai
Keito Yamakita def. Jeremy Miado by submission (bulldog choke), Round 1, 4:04

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