“He does fade pretty early” - Reinier de Ridder says he will choke out "tired" Vitaly Bigdash

Reinier de Ridder doubled down on his assessment of Vitaly Bigdash’s cardio in the pre-event interview for ONE 159, predicting that Bigdash won’t last the full five rounds against him.

This will be the first time that de Ridder will meet Bigdash under the bright lights of the Singapore Indoor Stadium. As he looks forward to defending his middleweight world title in a couple of days, ‘The Dutch Knight’ is unsurprisingly calm before the storm.

Having been in similar situations multiple times before, where opponents like Bigdash threaten to "break his nose," de Ridder has never been one to feel intimidated by their threats.

‘The Dutch Knight’ just responds with some hard facts and it’s no different with his next challenger.

Reinier de Ridder told ONE:

“He starts off very strongly, he starts off with a lot of power. But he does fatigue, he does fade, and he fades pretty soon, pretty early. He'll be tired at the end of the first, come out, guns blazing again in the second, and by the end of the second, I'll have him down and choked out.”

Watch the ONE 159 pre-event Interview below:

Reinier de Ridder is coming off 15 straight wins following a recent dominant arm triangle choke victory against Kiamrian Abbasov in March.

Prior to that world title defense, the grappling-heavy fighter defeated former two division world champion ‘The Burmese Python’ Aung La N Sang twice, becoming the new and undisputed world titleholder at middleweight and light heavyweight.

On the other hand, Vitaly Bigdash makes his return to the top of the stack following a three-fight win streak and a decision victory against Aung La at ONE: Full Circle. The win immediately pushed him to the number one contender spot to face the middleweight king.

---

Vitaly Bigdash will have his hands full against Reinier de Ridder

One of the reasons why Reinier de Ridder remains so dominant is because of his incredible ability to read his opponents. Like the master chess player that he is, ‘The Dutch Knight’ is always two or sometimes three steps ahead of the game, which has made him a very tough fighter to beat.

However, if there’s one man with the necessary skill set, experience, and game-changing power to unseat the Dutchman from the middleweight throne, it would be none other than Vitaly Bigdash.

Bigdash is the perfect counter to Reinier de Ridder’s grappling-heavy style. The former ONE middleweight world champion also has incredible power in both fists. With his legendary toughness on full display, Bigdash could very well score a shocking upset at ONE 159 and wear ONE gold around his waist once again.