ONE Championship
KEY POINTS
- Anatoly Malykhin knocks out Reinier de Ridder to become ONE light heavyweight champion
- Malykin becomes ONE’s fifth two-division world champion
- Kade Rutolo retains the ONE lightweight submission grappling championship
Russia’s Anatoly Malykhin is now a two-division ONE Championship titleholder.
The interim ONE heavyweight world champion went down a weight division and needed just under one round to demolish Reinier de Ridder to become the new ONE light heavyweight world champion in the main event of ONE Prime Video 5 on Friday, December 2.
It was complete dominance from Malykhin, who neutralized de Ridder’s grappling excellence and put on a masterclass in face-punching.
Malykhin thwarted de Ridder’s attempts to take the bout to the ground by landing counter punches and brushing the Dutchman off.
In the final moments of the bout, Malykin walked down a visibly shaken de Ridder and picked his shots, alternating punches to the body and head.
After a barrage of thunderous punches, Malykin finally landed the knockout blow, a vicious right hook that sent de Ridder to the mat.
The Russian juggernaut landed a few more hammer fists to finish de Ridder off in brutal fashion.
The stoppage came at the 4:35 mark of the opening round.
Malykhin’s performance was so dominant that ONE Championship chairman Chatri Sityodtong awarded him not one, but two performance bonuses for a total of $100,000.
The undefeated Malykhin becomes just the fifth double-champion in ONE history, joining the likes of Martin Nguyen, Aung La N Sang, Reinier de Ridder and Christian Lee.
He improves to 17-0 in his career, while picking up his fourth straight win under the ONE Championship banner.
De Ridder, meanwhile, suffers just the first loss of his MMA career, as he drops to 16-1. He is still ONE’s reigning middleweight titleholder.
ONE Championship
In the co-main event, American grappling ace Kade Rutolo successfully defended his ONE lightweight submission grappling championship against Brazilian challenger Matheus Gabriel.
Rutolo started things off by trying an ankle-pick before picking Gabriel up for a body-lock slam and trying to get control of top position.
A gifted grappler in his own right, Gabriel managed to keep Rutolo at bay but would not be able to do much else, as the champion was the more active competitor on the offensive end and maintained control of the action throughout the ten-minute contest.
In the end, it was Rutolo who earned the unanimous decision nod on the judges’ scorecards to retain his title.
The 19-year-old Rutolo picks up his third-straight submission grappling win under the ONE Championship banner.
Earlier in the card, his twin brother Tye Rutolo was also victorious, defeating former ONE titleholder Marat Gafurov via a wrist-lock submission.
