WATCH: Three-division champ Anatoly Malykhin goes old school in bare-knuckle heavy bag drill ahead of ONE 169
One of the secrets to the tremendous success of current three-division MMA world champion Anatoly Malykhin might have been revealed recently after he was seen having reps with the heavy bag using his bare hands.
This clip was shared by ONE Championship on Instagram, along with the caption:
"Three-division MMA king Anatoly Malykhin is getting preppped and READY to defend the ONE Heavyweight MMA World Championship against Reug Reug at ONE 169: Atlanta 🏆 Will he remain the king on November 8? @anmalykhin"
As seen in the video, the Russian knockout artist was throwing power punches on the heavy bag without any gloves. This method was inspired by former light welterweight boxing world champion Kostya Tszyu, who had much success during his 13-year professional career.
Because of this drill, the Russian-Australian legend was able to record 25 TKO/KO wins across his 31 career victories and fortified his power during bouts to help him become one of the most hard-hitting fighters in the history of the light welterweight division.
This bare-knuckle approach by 'Sladkiy' has also worked wonders for him, as he is still an undefeated professional MMA fighter and made history by becoming the first three-division world champion in the world's largest martial arts organization.
Anatoly Malykhin to defend ONE heavyweight MMA world title for the first time at ONE 169: Atlanta
Since becoming the undisputed ONE heavyweight MMA world champion in June 2023 after beating Arjan Bhullar via third-round TKO, Malykhin is now booked to defend it for the first time on November 8 at ONE 169: Atlanta.
The Golden Team representative will take on the challenge of Oumar 'Reug Reug' Kane inside the State Farm Arena. He looks to add him to his growing list of victims, which already had the likes of Alexandre Machado, Amir Aliakbari, Kirill Grishenko, and Reinier de Ridder.
Malykhin also holds the ONE middleweight and light heavyweight MMA world titles.