The most significant unfinished business in ONE Championship's heavyweight division is finally getting resolved.
ONE Heavyweight MMA World Champion Oumar "Reug Reug" Kane will put the belt on the line against former three-division champion Anatoly "Sladkiy" Malykhin at The Inner Circle on Friday, May 15.
The card broadcasts live in Asia primetime from Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, exclusively on live.onefc.com.
The first meeting between these two, at ONE 169 in November 2024, was the kind of fight that redraws the landscape. Malykhin entered that night with an unblemished record and world titles at middleweight, light heavyweight, and heavyweight — a position of dominance that made him appear untouchable.
Kane dismantled the narrative over 25 grueling minutes. Using his Lutte wrestling base, suffocating clinch control, and heavy hands to disrupt Malykhin's forward pressure, the Senegalese heavyweight earned a split-decision and handed the Russian the first loss of his career.
The belt Kane carried home meant something beyond the division. He became a national hero in Senegal, welcomed back by thousands in scenes that rarely accompany the aftermath of a close decision victory.
A rematch was quickly made for ONE 173 last November, but Kane was involved in a serious car accident in the United Arab Emirates and withdrew from the contest. Six months on, both fighters are healthy and the fight is confirmed.
The delay has done nothing to cool the temperature between them. The build-up to their first bout included sustained trash talk and physical altercations at pre-fight events, and the score that was left unsettled when Kane won on points has only added to that tension.
Kane enters his first title defence with something to prove beyond his athletic credentials. A portion of the heavyweight conversation has never fully accepted the first result.
After all, split decisions in close fights invite doubt, and Malykhin's stature only amplifies it. Kane's task on May 15 is to remove that doubt, or at least to silence it for long enough that it stops mattering.
Malykhin's motivation requires no elaboration. He still holds gold at middleweight and light heavyweight, but the heavyweight title he lost is the one that defined his run as the sport's most dominant figure.
He is not a fighter who has shown any weakness in how he processes adversity. His finishing rate before the Kane defeat was near-total, and he arrives in Bangkok as dangerous as he has ever been.
One fight changed everything between them. The second one could change it back.
