“The balance has to be right” – Reinier de Ridder vows to bring a more well-versed MMA game in Anatoly Malykhin rematch

Reinier de Ridder is out for redemption when he returns at ONE 166 to defend his ONE middleweight world championship.

After winning 16 fights in a row in his pro career, ‘The Dutch Knight’ suffered his first loss at ONE on Prime Video 5, where he faced Anatoly Malykhin.

Malykhin took both de Ridder’s undefeated record and his ONE light heavyweight world championship, but that has only motivated the Dutchman to come back stronger.

Part of his plan to showcase more of what he is capable of this time around is by utilizing different aspects of his game more effectively.

In his first meeting with Malykhin, the defending champion wasn’t able to implement his striking, and after being caught with some big shots, he was unable to correctly set up his takedown attempts to take the fight to the floor.

Reinier de Ridder told Sherdog.com in a recent interview that he believes he will be able to better mix the martial arts at the second time of asking:

“The balance has to be right, and in MMA, you can go too far to one or the other pretty easily.”

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Reinier de Ridder has been focused on this fight for a long time

It has been over a year since ONE Championship fans have seen Reinier de Ridder compete in MMA following his loss to Malykhin.

Throughout this process, he has had one thing on his mind and that’s getting his revenge over the undefeated Russian two-weight world champion.

He now gets that opportunity but to do it, he’ll have to deny his opponent the chance of making history as the first three-weight world champion in MMA history.

De Ridder isn’t lacking in motivation this time around and that pursuit is sure to bring the very best out of the man that they call ‘The Dutch Knight’.

ONE 166: Qatar will air live and free via Prime Video for North American viewers with an active subscription.