"He told me what I already know" - Reinier de Ridder reveals advice Aung La N Sang gave about Vitaly Bigdash

Reinier de Ridder and Aung La N Sang started as title rivals, but the two superstars have now developed a friendship that allows them to share fighting knowledge with each other.

'The Dutch Knight' seems to have taken Aung La’s advice as he prepares to defend his ONE middleweight world title against Vitaly Bigdash on ONE 159, which will be broadcast live from the Singapore Indoor Stadium on July 22.

In an interview with ONE Championship, de Ridder said that he and Aung La talked about Bigdash when he visited the Burmese legend down at Sanford MMA in Florida during his gym visits across the United States.

The champion, who also holds the ONE light heavyweight world title, pointed out that Aung La only confirmed what he had thought about the Russian mauler.

Reinier de Ridder said:

“Yeah, we talked about it a little bit. [Aung La N Sang] told me that [Bigdash] was pretty massive and that he missed weight twice. But hey, there’s not a lot there that I didn’t see already in the videos before. And he told me what I already know – that I’m going to dominate this guy.”

He added:

“What else did Aung tell me about him? Well, that he’s strong, muscular, but we can all see that stuff. And that he got pretty tired in the end [of their fight], and that was pretty visual as well.”

Aung La and de Ridder had two world title matches against each other inside the circle, with ‘The Dutch Knight’ taking both fights in spectacular fashion.

Reinier de Ridder submitted Aung La in the first round of their October 2020 meeting to become the ONE middleweight world champion.

Just six months later, de Ridder reached champ-champ status when he scored a unanimous decision win and took the ONE light heavyweight world championship from Aung La at ONE on TNT IV in April 2021.

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Reinier de Ridder recounts training at Sanford MMA

Gym-hopping isn’t new in MMA, but training at the facility with your once rival isn’t that common. Well, Reinier de Ridder isn’t one to conform to norms.

'The Dutch Knight' went on a gym tour this past April and one of the facilities he visited was Aung La’s home of Sanford MMA in Florida.

The double-champ said in the same interview that it began when he connected with Sanford MMA founder and fellow Dutchman Henri Hooft in Singapore during ONE X weekend.

“I talked to Henri a couple of times when I was there in Singapore. He’s Dutch as I am, so it was easy talking to him. We had some meals together up there and he told me, ‘Why don’t you come over?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I might,’ and I brought my family and made it a trip.”

Not only was de Ridder able to roll with Aung La, but his wife and kids also got to know ‘The Burmese Python’ during the visit.

“They were very warm, very friendly, and very welcoming. So it was a true pleasure. Very nice people. Aung met my wife, met my kids. It was very nice.”