Fight breakdown: How Reinier de Ridder put Vitaly Bigdash to sleep at ONE 159

Last Friday at ONE 159, ONE double-champion Reinier de Ridder put in a marvelous performance defending his middleweight belt against Vitaly Bigdash. His incredible inverted triangle finish was so slick that no one, including his opponent, saw it coming from the position where he pulled it.

The finish was so impressive that analysts and fighters are giving praise to 'The Dutch Knight', including MMA legend Dan Hardy.

The win wasn't as clean as it should have been, however. Early in the fight, 'The Dutch Knight' had to fend off a deadly-tight guillotine choke that could have ended things badly for him.

After finding a way to get out of the choke, de Ridder proceeded to methodically break Bigdash down with ground-and-pound and some pressure passing. Once he found the opportunity to grab a Kimura hold, the renowned Dutchman took advantage.

When Bigdash scrambled out, de Ridder simply reacted to what his opponent gave him and clamped the inverted triangle for the submission finish. Today, we'll do a technical analysis of the finish and how the ONE double-champ put the former world champion to sleep.

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How Reinier de Ridder got out of Vitaly Bigdash's guillotine choke

First, we need to look at that guillotine choke. To the casual observer, the choke looked deep and dangerously close to getting the tap, considering it happened so early and both fighters weren't sweaty yet.

Vitaly Bigdash put Reinier de Ridder in a guillotine choke early in the fight. (Image courtesy of ONE)

Upon further examination, it may not have been as dangerous as it seemed, especially since it was a seasoned blackbelt like de Ridder defending it. How Bigdash got a hold of de Ridder's neck as the champ-champ lazily went for a bodylock against the circle wall with his head going in first. The guillotine was on a plate.

The grip looked good but the finish wasn't as tight. When Bigdash jumped guard to finish it, his legs weren't in the right place. To have maximum leverage, you have to have your legs wrapped around your opponent's hips. Bigdash's legs, however, were wrapped under de Ridder's backside.

In his post-fight media scrum, Reinier de Ridder himself explained how this positional flaw helped him get out of the choke.

"So he [Bigdash] has to get his legs up high over my hips and I need to scoot my hips up. So I was scooting my hips up slowly and surely. He only had one side in. He was only choking me on my left side. My right side was still open. So I was never in any real trouble. But he was cranking it pretty hard and he was trying very hard. That was actually very good for me 'cause he got tired."

Indeed, Reinier de Ridder slowly scooted up his hips to escape the legs but also increased his shoulder pressure on Bigdash's torso. Putting that pressure down alleviates the squeeze of the choke. He then used his hands to peel off Bigdash's lock so he could pull his head out.

Speaking of chokes, in jiu-jitsu, if you need to use power and strength to finish a choke, you're doing it wrong. Bigdash didn't have good leverage to finish the choke, so he tried to compensate by using power and strength to crank it. If you use power, you tire. When you tire, you lose.

The most technical fighter wins 10 times out of 10. Simple as that.

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How Reinier de Ridder pulled off the inverted triangle choke on Vitaly Bigdash

Now, this is the kind of choke that you pull off mostly because it's so surprising and unlikely to happen, given the position you pulled it from. It's the kind of submission you can catch your training partner with only once in the gym before they start wisening up to it.

Reinier de Ridder himself jokingly asked the press not to tell everybody about it because it will be harder to pull off next time since everyone's seen it already.

The insane sequence started when de Ridder was on top of Bigdash's half-guard. 'The Dutch Knight' got a Kimura grip on Bigdash's left arm and proceeded to pass to side control to finish the submission. Realizing that the submission will be locked in once de Ridder gets to side control, Bigdash scrambled out.

In the ensuing scramble, Reinier de Ridder briefly tried to take back control but ended up on his own back. In the bottom position, de Ridder still had partial control of the Russian's left arm, with which he may have thought of attempting an armbar:

Reinier de Ridder briefly tried to attempt an armbar during the scramble.

Once Bigdash saw the potential armbar, he immediately pulled his left arm out, and that's where de Ridder found the perfect position to clamp the inverted triangle. The Dutchman had his right shin under Bigdash's abdomen and his left leg over his right shoulder. From there, all de Ridder had to do was transfer his left leg across Bigdash's face and then bring his right leg out to complete the triangle lock.

The lock was tight and was effectively restricting the blood flow to Bigdash's head. Bigdash could have countered by circling to his left and stepping over de Ridder's head, but 'The Dutch Knight' also had control of one of the legs so Bigdash wouldn't be able to move. The world title challenger had nowhere to go.

Watch the full fight and finish here: