Image Credits: ONE Championship
Anatoly “Spartak” Malykhin dominated his ONE Championship light heavyweight fight against Reinier de Ridder. He completely controlled the match from the opening seconds and, in the end, knocked out “The Dutch Knight”.
Then, during the post-fight press conference, the Russian gave a somewhat unexpected praise to Mikey Musumeci – the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu superstar:
He’s such a strong little guy. I wouldn’t want to meet him in a cage, honestly.
The “Spartak” also revealed the reason why he, himself, is such a dominant athlete in the cage – and why “nobody can take him down”:
I trained with one of the best fighters in the world, Olympic and freestyle wrestling.
And I believe [that] no one can take me down because that’s what I’m training for every single day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntWTmbeEU6g
Malykhin also emphasized that, if he were to fight Buchecha in the future, he’d have to brush up on his BJJ skills:
I like Buchecha, he’s a good guy. Maybe I’ll fight Buchecha next year.
I really like him as a person so I wouldn’t want to fight him honestly. But if he keeps calling me out, of course, I will accept the fight.But he [Buchecha] and De Ridder, I cannot compare them because he’s so much better than Reinier in Jiu-Jitsu.
So if I happen to fight him, I will have to update my skills in Jiu-Jitsu.
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