“I never really faced any real adversity” – Reinier de Ridder admits undefeated record got to his head

Winning his first 16 fights in a row, Reinier de Ridder felt unbeatable.

Unfortunately, ‘The Dutch Knight’ came crashing back down to reality when he stepped inside the Circle with current two-division titleholder Anatoly Malykhin at ONE on Prime Video 5. It took ‘Sladkiy’ less than a round to dispatch de Ridder with a brutal onslaught of strikes that the Dutchman simply had no answer for.

Looking back on the brutal loss, Reinier de Ridder admits that he walked into his first meeting with Malykhin believing it was going to be like every other fight he had competed in.

“If you win 16 in a row – and to be honest, not to seem arrogant, because I'm not trying to be arrogant – but it always went pretty easily in the fight, right? I never really got touched,” de Ridder told ONE Championship. “I never really got hurt. I never really faced any real adversity. It was always like that. There was a guy in front of me, I walk towards him, take him down, and choke him out basically."

He added:

“So in my head, it kind of got stuck that this is how fights go and I can do this to anybody in the world. I could until I couldn't, and it clearly showed when I got knocked out viciously and I’ve been building back ever since.”

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Reinier de Ridder has been improving his skills ahead of ONE 166 rematch

Since coming up short against Anatoly Malykhin the first time around, the reigning and defending ONE middleweight world champion has been hard at work, patching the holes in his game so that things go very different when the two run it back in the ONE 166: Qatar headliner on Friday, March 1.

"[Since that loss] it has been different,” de Ridder told Sportskeeda MMA. “I've really gotten back to it. I need to earn that right. I need to grind. I need to put in all the work. Fix all the little details to get the right to finish the guy. So, hopefully, I will."

Will ‘The Dutch Knight’ redeem himself in front of a raucous crowd at Lusail Sports Arena, or will the Russian juggernaut go up 2-nil at one of the biggest combat sports events of 2024?

Amazon Prime Video subscribers in North America can catch all the action at ONE 166: Qatar live and for free on Friday, March 1.