The long awaited heavyweight title fight rematch between Oumar “Reug Reug” Kane and Anatoly Malykhin has finally been rescheduled with the matchup set for ONE: The Inner Circle on Friday, May 15 from Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.
ONE Championship officials confirmed the news to MMA Fighting on Sunday.
The heavyweights were originally supposed to meet again this past November but “Reug Reug” was involved a “serious car accident” just days before the fight was supposed to happen. As a result, ONE was forced to cancel the rematch while the reigning heavyweight champion recovered.
Now “Reug Reug” has been cleared to return to action as he looks to defend his title against the man he beat for the belt in a razor-close split decision.
Overall, “Reug Reug” sports a 7-1 record in his career including a win over current UFC heavyweight Marcus Buchecha.
As for Malykhin, he returns to action after suffering the first loss of his career when he fell to Kane back in 2024. Prior to that setback, Malykhin captured titles in three different divisions in ONE after beating current UFC contender Reinier de Ridder in a pair of fights to take his light heavyweight and middleweight titles.
He also won the heavyweight title with a stoppage win over ex-UFC fighter Arjan Bhullar before dropping the split decision to “Reug Reug.”
In addition to the heavyweight title fight main event, ONE previously announced that grappling sensation Kade Ruotolo returns to action for his fourth MMA fight when he faces Hiroyuki Tetsuka on May 15.
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