Ask Oumar “Reug Reug” Kane about sharks and he laughs. Ask him about tuna and his expression changes entirely.
Kane makes the first defense of his ONE Heavyweight MMA World Title against former three-division ONE MMA World Champion Anatoly “Sladkiy” Malykhin at The Inner Circle, streaming live for members at live.onefc.com from Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, on Friday, May 15.
The 34-year-old Senegalese fighter grew up in Thiaroye sur Mer, a coastal fishing town outside Dakar, where daily survival meant swimming deep into the open ocean, hauling nets by hand, and wrestling creatures that dwarfed any opponent he would later face inside a ring. The biggest catch of his life was a 300-kilogram swordfish, landed with nothing but spears and a net, dragged to shore by brute strength and the habits of a village that had no other way to eat.
When asked about encountering sharks during those dives, Kane did not flinch. He redirected the question to the animal that actually earned his respect.
“Sharks are nothing. I was more concerned about making sure that we came back to shore with a boat full of fish. That was the only way we would survive. I’m not scared of sharks. I think they were scared of me. I’m a big black shark,” he said.
“But to be honest, there are more dangerous fish in the ocean than sharks. The most dangerous one I came across was a tuna. It’s very strong and very fast. If you ever caught one, it moves a lot and it will drag you into the sea.”
Oumar Kane’s strength was built long before he ever stepped into a wrestling pit
Oumar Kane did not arrive at the ONE Championship heavyweight division with a strength program or a sports science team behind him. He arrived with lungs built from years of free diving, hands toughened from hauling nets, and a cardiovascular base assembled across thousands of mornings on the West African coast.
Between wrestling and school, the ocean was his third curriculum. It demanded physical output that no gym can replicate, and it produced the physical frame and fearlessness that have defined his MMA career.
“All I did was wrestling and school. That’s it. But when I wasn’t doing that, I was fishing. We lived in a fishing village, in a small shack right by the sea. Our boats were parked up on the shore. We were always in the ocean, every day. That was normal life for us. It is how we made a living, and how we survived,” he said.
“I love fishing. It’s what gave me life. The water is my home. I can go very deep into the ocean, miles out. I hold my breath very long and can swim very well.”
