The ONE 169: Malykhin vs. Reug Reug card is stacked to the brim with exciting matchups across three combat sports disciplines, and it has a trifecta of world title clashes featured at the top.
The main event sees three-division king Anatoly Malykhin defends his heavyweight MMA strap against “Reug Reug” Oumar Kane on the November 9, event, while Rodtang puts the ONE flyweight Muay Thai world title on the line against Jacob Smith, and Anissa Meksen meets Jackie Buntan to contest the inaugural women’s strawweight kickboxing belt prior to that.
Those fights will undoubtedly receive a lot of attention, but here are three mixed martial arts showdowns from a little further down the card that could steal the show earlier in the evening. So, let’s dig in.
Marcus Almeida vs. Amir Aliakbari
Malykhin and “Reug Reug” may be battling it out for the crown in the headliner, but another seismic heavyweight MMA collision will go down in the leadup when Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida and Amir Aliakbari meet to determine a future world title contender.
ONE 169 will mark Almeida’s first appearance in ONE Championship since falling to a decision loss in his gritty matchup with Kane in August 2023. The 14-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu king was previously unbeaten in his MMA career, having won four in a row in the world’s largest martial arts organization.
The defeat to “Reug Reug” was a significant setback, but the grappling great is ready to return to winning ways against Aliakbari.
However, the Iranian giant is in the best form of his career, with four wins from as many bouts and three knockouts in that run, so that will be a difficult task. Aliakbari has also lost out to Malykhin once before, so fans can bet he’ll be out to grab the World Champion’s attention when he faces Almeida.
Kade Ruotolo vs. Ahmed Mujtaba
Following his mixed martial arts debut at ONE 167, ONE lightweight submission grappling world champion Kade Ruotolo will be looking to keep his momentum rolling when he meets fellow finisher Ahmed Mujtaba in lightweight MMA action at ONE 169.
Ruotolo has dominated the grappling realm both inside and outside of ONE, and he showed his prolific skill set could easily transfer over when he submitted Blake Cooper in round one of his first MMA fight this past June. The American star plans to show that was no flook and confirm himself as an undeniable threat in the stacked lightweight division against Mujtaba.
But the Pakistani punisher will do everything he can to stop that from happening.
“Wolverine” has been a feature in ONE Championship for eight years, and he’s shown he has the goods on the feet and the mats in that time. With a knockout win against Rahul Raju in 2021 and a submission win over BJJ black belt Abraao Amorim in 2022, he certainly has the chops to cause Ruotolo problems when they tussle on Saturday.
Adriano Moraes vs. Danny Kingad II
In a rematch of their 2017 encounter, former ONE flyweight MMA world champion Adriano Moraes and No. 3-ranked contender Danny Kingad will duke it out to see who could potentially find themselves next in line for a shot at the vacant flyweight crown.
The pair first met at ONE: LEGENDS OF THE WORLD, where Moraes successfully defended the divisional gold via a first-round rear-naked choke submission. “Mikinho” went on to have multiple World Title runs after that, and he has said he’ll score another win over his Filipino rival this weekend.
Meanwhile, Kingad bounced back from that loss by going on a six-fight winning streak, and he has remained a notable name in the talent-laden flyweight MMA division since then.
There is little doubt that these two will throw everything at each other in order to make their case for a World Title shot when they run it back at ONE 169.
