Anatoly Malykhin recalls moment his untapped KO power flattened UFC's Rountree: "He was about to cry"
Current UFC light heavyweight contender Khalil Rountree Jr. may be on a hot streak under the Las Vegas-based promotion right now, but he was the catalyst for discovering the hidden power of current three-division MMA world champion Anatoly Malykhin.
In his most recent appearance on the Red Corner MMA's YouTube channel for an interview, Malykhin detailed how he found out about his incredible one-shot power during a sparring session with Rountree.
'Sladkiy' started:
"Khalil Rountree, who's on a good streak in the UFC now. Let me tell you how Johnny Hutchinson became my coach. I got here after having COVID. I was still coughing blood, feeling really bad, with sputum still coming out of my lungs, it was a scary moment for me. So I enter the Tiger gym and see a guy."
"He has nobody to spar with because he's already beat up a few guys. So I'm standing there, warming up. Back then, the Hickman brothers were still working at Tiger. So they come up to me and say: "Hey, he needs someone to spar with." Johnny, in particular, he was like 'Can you stand with him?'. And I'm like, 'Well, I'm not a striker, but I'll give him some work.'"
The seemingly normal and casual training session turned into a heated one after the Russian knockout artist landed a punch on Rountree's face, as he added:
"So the sparring starts, two minutes in, we're in a clinch, then we break up and I catch him with a punch. I broke his nose, he was bleeding. Let me tell you something, he just flipped out, took his gloves off, he was about to cry."
"The coached start screaming at me like, 'Hey, what are you doing?' And my English didn't exist back then...I'm like, 'Guys, it's sparring! What should I do?'. And Johnny was the only one who was like [giving me the thumbs up]. And after that, he became interested in me as I did well against such a good striker."
Since then, the Golden Team representative has honed his striking skills and transformed into a demolition man who stops every opponent in front of him. In fact, Malykhin not only has an undefeated record in ONE Championship but also has a 100% TKO/KO rate.
Anatoly Malykhin wants to conquer Mt. Everest and list it as one of his life goals
Malykhin may have been on top of the MMA world right now, but he still yearns for more mountains to climb. In a recent Instagram post, the 36-year-old superstar revealed that he wants to climb Mt. Everest, even with the danger it presents.
However, he has claimed that his life is also in danger every day whenever he trains because he takes on other professional fighters in the gym through multiple sparring sessions.