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Reinier de Ridder is coming for everyone, regardless of weight class or promotion.
The ONE middleweight and light heavyweight world champion, in his interview with South China Morning Post MMA, called out and even dismissed UFC stars Israel Adesanya, Jiri Prochazka, Alex Pereira and Jan Blachowicz.
De Ridder did, however, look at top contenders Robert Whitaker and Derek Brunson as better matchups than Adesanya, the reigning middleweight champion, and Prochazka, the newly-crowned light heavyweight king.
The Dutch superstar described Adesanya, Blachowicz and Prochazka as one-dimensional strikers who would ultimately fall to a superior grappler in any contest.
“In the UFC, top middleweights, you have like Pereira coming up now. Pereira, he’s basically just a striker, easy match-up. Adesanya is a pretty easy match-up, to be honest. Maybe Derek Brunson would be tougher. Robert Whittaker is definitely a harder match-up than Pereira and Adesanya.”
He added:
“But light heavyweight is also an option [for me]. I’m still taller than those guys like [Jiri] Prochazka, Jan [Blachowicz], so that would also work. Those guys are basically just strikers as well. Prochazka, he got dominated in the grappling department last time, kinda.”
De Ridder has already proven that he’s equally comfortable at both middleweight and light heavyweight classes. His latest match saw him score a first-round submission over former ONE middleweight world champion Vitaly Bigdash this past July at ONE 159.
Reinier de Ridder wants to grow his legacy
Reinier de Ridder is arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter in ONE Championship, yet he’s not settling for the world titles in his possession.
‘The Dutch Knight’ has stressed his desire to gun for the ONE heavyweight world championship and he’ll do whatever it takes to complete the hat trick.
Following his victory over Bigdash, de Ridder said in the post-fight interview that he’s willing to fight Anatoly Malykhin, the ONE interim heavyweight world champion, and Arjan Bhullar, the ONE heavyweight world champion, on the same night.
"Malykhin has strong power punches but he's pretty short -- short punches, throws a lot of hooks, a lot of short stuff. He'd be pretty good to take down, to be honest. Bhullar throws good punches but he doesn't really have a lot of power, to be honest. And he won't be the first wrestler I'll face,” said De Ridder.
