“Only the cage is real” - Vitaly Bigdash wants to cut out the noise and focus on beating Reinier de Ridder

Vitaly Bigdash, the former ONE middleweight world champion, is looking to take back his world title at ONE 159. The undefeated Dutch double champion Reinier de Ridder is standing in his way.

The Russian-born world title challenger did not have much to say in interviews and seems to be done with the trash-talking spectacle of it all. At his core, he is a fighter, and he just wants to fight for the belt he once held.

He will get the chance to do so on July 22, when he meets De Ridder in the evening’s main event. Speaking to ONE Championship in an interview, Bigdash said:

"Only the cage is real, only what’s inside of it. While all the rest, all this talk and bickering, all these predictions are just pointless."

Bigdash is done with the trash-talk. He just wants to get in the circle and get the job done. He even said that his past fights can tell his story and show his great resilience. Bigdash explained:

"I want to put it this way. My previous fights tell a lot about my mentality and endurance. I’ve had a lot of fights when I was on the edge of defeat. But I pulled myself up and snatched the victory. There were a lot of such fights. Let him watch my fights, and he will understand everything at once."

Vitaly Bigdash has had some incredible wins in the circle. The Russian fighter has earned impressive victories over Aung La N Sang, Fan Rong, and also Igor Svirid in perhaps the greatest fight in ONE history.

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ONE 159: Reinier de Ridder vs. Vitaly Bigdash

As a child, Bigdash fell in love with Kyokushin karate and has been training in martial arts ever since. He also has a dangerous ground game, winning many recent fights via submission or by his wrestling.

Despite all of Vitaly Bigdash's talent and success in the circle, reigning two-division ONE world champion Reinier de Ridder does not sound too concerned about his ONE 159 title challenger.

Speaking to ONE in an interview, ‘The Dutch Knight’ offered this breakdown of his upcoming opponent:

“[Bigdash] takes his time, picks his shots. There are a lot of single shots on the feet which is smart sometimes. His shots are pretty straight, pretty clean. But he’s predictable, and he gets tired very easily.”

De Ridder then called for a fight against heavyweight world champions Arjan Bhullar and Anatoly Malykhin. Bhullar and Malykhin are expected to settle the ONE heavyweight world title picture in a unification bout sometime later this year. When that happens, De Ridder will be looking to earn a shot at going for three world titles.

However, before he can do that, Reinier de Ridder must defeat the dangerous former middleweight king Vitaly Bigdash at ONE 159 on July 22.