Anatoly Malykhin works out with Fabricio Andrade, Petr Yan in Thailand
Anatoly Malykhin, Fabricio Andrade, and Petr Yan are preparing together for their major upcoming fights. ONE Interim Heavyweight World Champion Malykhin shared a clip of the MMA fighters training with each other on social media.
On Instagram, the Russian-born athlete wrote:
"Джентельмены удачи [Gentlemen of fortune]" (Russian to English courtesy of Google Translate)
It is a comedic parody video based on the 1971 Soviet Union film Gentlemen of Fortune. The film is a crime-comedy movie about a kindergarten teacher switching places with a mob boss.
Anatoly Malykhin, Fabricio Andrade, and Petr Yan train at the Tiger Muay Thai gym in Thailand. Fighters such as Alexander Volkanovski, Valentina Shevchenko, and Vitaly Bigdash have also trained at this academy.
These three fighters are training alongside one another for some major upcoming fights. Anatoly Malykhin will eventually be facing ONE Heavyweight World Champion Arjan Bhullar.
Petr Yan will meet 'Sugar' Sean O'Malley at UFC 280. Brazil's Fabricio Andrade will be fighting for the ONE Bantamweight World Championship against John Linker in the near future.
Anatoly Malykhin responds to Amir Aliakbari
Heavyweights Anatoly Malykhin and Arjan Bhullar were scheduled to meet, headlining a World Title unification match at ONE 161. However, the fight appears to have been postponed or canceled due to Bhullar sustaining an arm injury.
Iranian fighter Amir Aliakbari called out the Russian Malykhin after his victory at ONE on Prime Video 1. Aliakbari earned a TKO win over Mauro Cerilli and then asked for a rematch against the ONE Interim Heavyweight World Champion.
'Sladkiy' responded to the challenge in an interview with ONE, where he said:
“No one has a chance to [beat] me in this division. I am always 100 percent ready. A miracle must happen for someone, including Aliakbari, to [beat] me. It will not be difficult to drop Aliakbari again. This fight is easy money for me. If there is a second fight, then he will become another highlight [reel].”
Despite the TKO victory in favor of the Iranian wrestler, the Russian fighter was not too impressed with that performance.
“I watched his fight against Mauro. What can I say? Aliakbari did not show anything new. He is still the same – slow. He does not breathe well. I don’t see what he can [do to] oppose my speed and functionality, my pressure.”