“I lost track of what made me great” – Reinier de Ridder on the biggest lesson he learned from shocking loss to Anatoly Malykhin

There is no greater feeling for a fighter than to reach the upper echelons of combat sports by claiming multiple world championships. That was certainly how Reinier de Ridder made his name in ONE Championship.

‘The Dutch Knight’ quickly ascended the ranks by putting together a resume of seven straight MMA victories with five finishes to his name and won the ONE light heavyweight and middleweight MMA world championships in the process.

Along the way however, he did run into the heavyweight steamroller that is Anatoly Malykhin and succumbed to his boxing skills and dropped the ONE light heavyweight MMA world championship via first-round TKO.

That kind of loss would take a toll on anyone and with their rematch set for ONE 166 at the Lusail Sports Arena in Qatar on March 1, de Ridder talked about his mistakes in a recent interview with ONE Championship:

“It was all of the above. I wasn't myself, clearly. Kind of in preparation for the fight and even maybe even the fights before, I kind of lost track of what made me great, what makes me great. Got away from putting in the time as much developing every small little area of my game.”

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Reinier de Ridder regrets calling out fighters

The Dutch star has never been one to shy away from letting his thoughts be known, and since losing to ‘Sladkiy’, he has been more open than ever before.

In another interview he recently did with Threepeat Media, de Ridder shared that it was that same willingness to talk smack that got him in big trouble courtesy of the Russian’s star’s big right-hand.

At ONE 166, de Ridder’s ONE middleweight MMA world championship will be on the line and he is gunning for revenge then.

ONE 166 is available live and for free to all Prime Video subscribers in North America.