Aung La N Sang lauds Anatoly Malykhin for 'breaking' Reinier de Ridder in rematch: "He was able to land his game plan"
Former ONE double-world champion Aung La N Sang is overly impressed with Anatoly Malykhin's clinical performance over Reinier de Ridder in their rematch at ONE 166: Qatar.
The Burmese veteran foresees a potential world title bout with the new and undisputed middleweight champion, Anatoly 'Sladkiy' Malykhin in the near future. As such, he's been watching his fights to eventually be the first to discover his weaknesses.
But against Reinier de Ridder, Aung La N Sang admitted to finding none. He doubled down on Malykhin's intelligent game plan, superior striking, and wrestling as the reason for his quick success.
Speaking to ONE Championship, Aung La explained:
"Anatoly defended all the takedowns and was able to land his game plan, which is it box him in. It pretty much broke Reinier in the third round."
Indeed, this middleweight MMA world title bout was another opportunity for Anatoly Malykhin to outclass his Dutch opponent. To this date, no one has an answer to Malykhin's power and overall skillsets. He remains undefeated with a record of 14-0 overall, arguably making him the greatest pound-for-pound striker across multiple divisions in the promotion's history.
Aung La N Sang is done waiting and wants his next middleweight showdown as soon as possible
It's been ten months since Aung La N Sang last fought inside the MMA ring.
The former middleweight and light heavyweight MMA world champion had an extremely busy schedule last year, fighting in three back-to-back bouts against some of the most dangerous contenders in the division, fighting the likes of Fan Rong, Gilberto Galvao, and Yushin Okami.
Fully recovered to take on a more challenging opponent - especially after finishing his last few bouts by either knockout or submission - Aung La wants to keep the streak alive with another big fight. Whether it's against the new three-division world champion Anatoly Malykhin or not, the 38-year-old veteran wants to fight somebody worthwhile.
On Instagram, he wrote the following caption:
"It's always a great day @killcliff_fc. You can't cheat the grind! I'm ready, give me a fight @onechampionship."