Reinier de Ridder all praise for Danaher Death Squad after training with them

Reinier de Ridder shared his experience training with the fabled Danaher Death Squad jiu-jitsu team.

The Danaher Death Squad was practically unstoppable throughout most of the 2010s, winning every major no-gi BJJ world title on more than one occasion. Headed up by mastermind John Danaher, the team featured some of the biggest names in BJJ including Gordan Ryan, Garry Tonon, Nicky Ryan, Nicky Rodriguez, and Craig Jones.

In an interview with the South China Morning Post, the reigning ONE middleweight world champion shared his experience training with the iconic grappling team, saying:

“Definitely, they’re on the top of the heap right now,” de Ridder said. “There’s a thing. Grappling for MMA is just different from grappling for grappling.”

After running through his first 16 opponents in mixed martial arts, Reinier de Ridder suffered his first setback in December, suffering a first-round knockout when he defended the light heavyweight crown against ONE interim heavyweight world champion, Anatoly Malykhin. ‘The Dutch Knight’ will look to bounce back a little later this year when he competes at ONE Fight Night 10 on Prime Video.

Emanating from the 1stBank Center in Colorado, de Ridder will return to the Circle for a middleweight submission grappling showdown with Tye Ruotolo.

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Reinier de Ridder eyeing a submission grappling run once his MMA career is over

Even with a lengthy record of 16-1, Reinier de Ridder is far from done with mixed martial arts, but that doesn’t mean ‘The Dutch Knight’ isn’t taking a long hard look at his options once he closes the book on an already legendary MMA career.

Taking to Instagram, de Ridder revealed that he still has some unfinished business in the world of submission grappling:

“I finally won double gold at the @ibjjf europeans… ah no the myth, the legend @h.g.vdberg did 😂 In the beginning of my career I got silver at the europeans 3 years in a row which sparked my full time move to MMA because I was frustrated with the rules in BJJ. But one day I need a pair of these so when MMA is done and I can focus on BJJ I will see if I can also achieve this amazing result. And I will be in Texas next week sharpening up🔥”