“Before the fight my leg was taken off, they thought about giving up the fight with Bhullar” – Anatoly Malykhin

Russian Anatoly Malikhin in an interview with , he said he was considering the possibility of pulling out of the bout with Canadian Arjan Bhullar due to injury.

On Friday, the Russian defeated Canadian Bhullar by technical knockout in the third round of the ONE Friday Fights 22 tournament and added the heavyweight title to the light heavyweight championship belt.

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– Anatoly, you are officially a double champion.

– Awareness of this was present even before the battle. I already tell everyone that I am a triple champion. My wife and I work very hard on visualization and proper thinking. And all this does not keep you waiting. The second belt has arrived, the third will arrive in October. Everything is clear, I’m getting high.

– If I understand correctly, you underwent an MRI after the fight. Just in case, or are there consequences?

“I don’t like to talk about it. I had an injury two weeks before the fight. I was worried about an injury, but we decided we had to fight. My leg was removed – my nerve in the pelvis was pinched, the leg was removed. I couldn’t really jump. It was hard. There were even pansies to remove, but we didn’t. I was very worried about it and in the second round fight my leg started to give out, I stopped feeling it. I want to hit hard, but I understand that I no longer feel my leg.

Malykhin, 35, now has 13 wins and no losses. Prior to that, the fighter fought in December 2022 against Rainier de Ridder, where he won the light heavyweight belt. Bhullar, 37, suffered the second defeat of his career with 11 wins. De Ridder holds the ONE middleweight belt.

Boxing tournaments are broadcast live on the federal channel and the thematic channels of the holding, as well as on the sites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.