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Always a threat no matter the position, ONE middleweight and light heavyweight world champion Reinier de Ridder is on the verge of a landmark year.
In addition to winning two world title fights this year by submission, he also went up against Andre Galvao in a ONE submission grappling super-fight.
'The Dutch Knight' last appeared inside the circle at ONE 159 in July, defending his middleweight world championship against Vitaly Bigdash of Russia. The highlights and sequence that led to the finish were recently posted by ONE Championship’s YouTube channel, have a look:
Check out the clip below:
The two had already traded submission attempts in the fight. Vitaly Bigdash jumped into guard with a guillotine choke on de Ridder, but the Dutchman was able to slowly work his head out of the submission.
With Reinier de Ridder now on top, he worked to improve his position to provide a setup for the kimura. Once finally locking up the hand grip for the kimura, Bigdash stood up against the cage and reversed the position.
However, during the scramble, de Ridder maintained the hand grips from the kimura attempt and threw his legs around the neck and shoulders of Bigdash- a trap to set up a triangle choke. It wasn’t long before the inverted triangle was fully locked in and Bigdash blindly punched whatever his fists could find.
Reiner de Ridder’s triangle choke submission of Vitaly Bigdash rendered the Russian unconscious. Not only was the finish likely the most impressive of Reinier de Ridder’s MMA career, but one of the best submissions this year - in all of MMA.
Reinier de Ridder doesn’t mind getting taken down by Anatoly Malykhin
Preparing for a fight in the main event of ONE on Prime Video 5, de Ridder will defend his light heavyweight belt against interim heavyweight world champion Anatoly Malykhin.
The bout will cap off the first event by ONE Championship in Manila, Philippines, since the pandemic began. It will be broadcast live and free on December 2 for North American audiences with a Prime Video subscription.
In an interview with the South China Morning Post (SCMP), Reinier de Ridder spoke about the takedown threat from Malykhin, and didn’t seem too worried about fighting off his back:
“It will be nice to get taken down for once, to let somebody else do the heavy work. But I don’t think he’ll be looking for a takedown in this fight.”
Certainly the bigger man, Malykhin will be dropping down a weight class for his clash with de Ridder and will have the size advantage.
The video posted above shows exactly why de Ridder doesn’t seem to mind having to work off of his back and look for submissions. Still undefeated in MMA at 16-0 and winning almost every fight by submission, Reinier de Ridder is likely hoping the fight gets to the ground as soon as possible - even if he has to take a few punches to get there.
