Reinier de Ridder celebrates inside the Circle after defeating Vitaly Bigdash with an inverted-triangle choke at ONE 159 on July 22.
O
NE middleweight and light heavyweight world-champion Reinier de Ridder is one of the most charismatic and lethal fighters on the ONE roster, and his most-recent victory showed why.
The unbeaten Dutchman put his middleweight throne on the line against former divisional king Vitaly Bigdash in the main event of ONE 159 on July 22, at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
After working his way out of a vice-like guillotine choke that the Russian challenger secured in the opening moments, De Ridder went to work putting a stamp on his second World Title defense.
With Bigdash in top mount, the 31-year-old superstar expertly swept his legs over his rival’s torso and pulled him into an inverted-triangle submission that forced the tap midway through the opening round.
Watch the action here.
“The Dutch Knight” was handed the win, pushing his record to a jaw-dropping 16-0 and further cementing his dominance over the stacked division.
Following the match, the two-division ONE world champion spoke of his initial shock at being found in such deep waters early on, but he ultimately remained unfazed as he worked toward his latest victory.
“The punch arrived, and it hit my neck. The guillotine arrived, and it was a little sloppy. But yeah, it was surprising. He was pretty strong, and he did well, but not well enough,” De Ridder said.
“I was never in any real trouble, but he was cranking it pretty hard. That was actually very good for me because he got tired. The moment he let go, I could get in some good ground-and-pound, and I hit him with some good shots. And after that, you saw what happened, right?
“I’ve been doing [that move] for years. Everywhere I go, every gym I visit. If they don’t know what’s coming, I can get anybody in the world with this stuff.”
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Aside from successfully defending his title for the second time, De Ridder received a US$50,000 bonus for his efforts. And with the adrenaline of the win only seconds behind him, the hulking middleweight made the type of claim that ONE fans have come to expect from him by calling out his next opponent — or opponents — in classic De Ridder style.
“They’re talking about doing [ONE Interim Heavyweight World Champ Anatoly] Malykhin and [ONE Heavyweight World Champ Arjan] Bhullar first, but let me have my shot first. Both of them on the same night. I don’t care. [ONE] does mixed-rule stuff and whatever. So why not two opponents? Let’s do it,” he said.
“Put them in front of me. I’ll knock them out. I’ll choke them out. Anybody.”
In the meantime, download the ONE Super App to catch all the action at ONE 160: Ok vs. Lee II on Aug. 26, at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
This article is published in collaboration with ONE Championship.
