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ONE Championship shared a throwback video of Reinier de Ridder escalating his rivalry with Anatoly Malykhin.
In 2022, De Ridder’s callout was fulfilled when he was matched up to defend his ONE light heavyweight MMA world title against Malykhin. At the time, ‘The Dutch Knight’ was an undisputed two-division MMA world champion, while his Russian rival held the ONE interim heavyweight MMA world title.
De Ridder and Malykhin came face-to-face for the ONE on Prime Video 5 press conference in Manila. ONE recently shared a highlight from that day on Instagram of ‘The Dutch Knight’ saying this about his opponent’s interim world title:
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“You don’t even have a belt, shut up. We all know this is the fake one. You didn’t beat the champion. You’re no champion.”
Anatoly Malykhin had the last laugh of their meeting by knocking out Reinier de Ridder in round one. Malykhin went on to defeat Arjan Bhullar for the undisputed ONE heavyweight MMA world title, making him a two-division king ahead of his upcoming rematch against de Ridder.
Reinier de Ridder reveals he “lifted a lot of weights” to prepare for Anatoly Malykhin rematch
On March 1, Anatoly Malykhin will move down to the middleweight division and attempt to become a legendary three-division king. To do so, Malykhin must get through the always dangerous Reinier de Ridder, who plans to avenge his knockout loss against the Russian powerhouse.
During an interview with ONE, De Ridder explained what he worked on to ensure he emerges victorious in the rematch against Malykhin:
“One of the big things is, he just naturally has, like 10, 15 kilos on me, maybe even more. He has very wide shoulders, wide back, long arms. So that was something that was easy to work on. Right? So it's an easy thing, just lift weights, I lifted a lot of weights and I ate a lot of food, try and get a bit heavier. So that's one thing that I did.”
ONE 166: Qatar goes down inside the Lusail Sports Arena at Lusail Sports Arena. The event can be seen live and for free by North American viewers with an active Amazon Prime Video subscription.
