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ONE Championship's middleweight division is currently ruled with an iron fist by its only double-champ, Reinier de Ridder. Not only is he on top of ONE's 205-pound division, he is also atop their 225-pound weight class. Ruling two weight classes is quite the pressure-cooker for any world champion, but 'The Dutch Knight' relishes it like no other.
In the first world title defense of his middleweight belt, De Ridder decisively mauled fellow ONE world champion and welterweight king Kiamrian Abbasov. De Ridder made a fellow world champion look like an amateur inside the circle.
At ONE 159 tonight, 'The Dutch Knight' will once again defend the middleweight strap against former ONE world champion Vitaly Bigdash.
In a video uploaded by ONE Championship, we see a recap of the dangerous contenders that await De Ridder at middleweight, as well as the heavyweight division, a division he plans on conquering.
Watch the full video below:
ONE Championship double-champ Reinier de Ridder aims to become MMA's first-ever triple-division champ
It's no secret that Reinier de Ridder aims to win a third belt in as many divisions in MMA. If he achieves this, he'll make history by being the first-ever MMA world champion in three different weight classes.
The reason why this has never happened before, despite MMA being almost three decades old now, is the fact that the weight classes in the sport are too far apart.
De Ridder is targeting ONE Championship's heavyweight division as his third weight class - a division with a 265-pound weight limit. The record-holder for most world titles in as many weight classes in boxing is Manny Pacquiao with eight. That's from flyweight (112lbs) to super welterweight (154lbs). That's 42-pounds across eight weight classes.
De Ridder is looking to achieve belts in weight classes across 60 pounds. It's a monumental task, considering the two kings who rule the division, ONE heavyweight world champion Arjan Bhullar and interim world champion Anatoly Malykhin.
In a recent video, Bhullar made it clear that 'The Dutch Knight' will not steamroll him like the rest of his previous opponents, saying:
"I'm not Aung La [N Sang]. You're not gonna run and sprint across the cage and get up in my grill and shoot those garbage takedowns."
Both Bhullar and Malykhin have decorated wrestling backgrounds and are gargantuan in size. If 'The Dutch Knight' really wants to conquer the heavyweight throne, he needs more than just his grappling wizardry to pull this monumental task off.
