“He's very dangerous with it” – Reinier de Ridder wary of Anatoly Malykhin’s sledgehammer right hand

No one can blame ONE middleweight MMA world champion Reinier de Ridder for being supremely confident prior to his first meeting with Anatoly Malykhin.

After all, he was practically untouchable at the time, boasting an unbeaten 16-0 record, which includes massive wins over the likes of Aung La N Sang and Vitaly Bigdash, among others.

As such, ‘The Dutch Knight’ expected to run through ‘Sladkiy’ as well, considering he shared similar skills with some of the challengers he already vanquished before. Well, or so he thought.

In an interview with ONE, de Ridder recalled his nonchalant approach when he paired against Malykhin at ONE on Prime Video 5 in December 2022:

“Yeah, it's weird looking back because of course he's very dangerous but all the guys that I face are dangerous. Bigdash knocks everybody out. Aung knocked everybody out. They all have the same weapon basically, it's all about the right hand.”

Reinier de Ridder’s assuredness was warranted, considering he weathered Aung La and Bigdash’s power, and submitted them via a rear-naked choke and an inverted triangle, respectively.

The Combat Brothers standout continued:

“The same thing goes for Malykhin. He just has a very strong right hand and he's very dangerous with it. But to be honest, I was like, ‘I've seen this before and I'm just gonna take him down easily and choke him out.”

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Anatoly Malykhin says he’ll beat Reinier de Ridder at his own game

As we know by now, things went south for Reinier de Ridder against Anatoly Malykhin. He ended up losing his light heavyweight MMA crown and consciousness in just one round due to that sledgehammer of a right hand.

The pair will meet again on March 1 in the main event of ONE 166: Qatar at Lusail Sports Arena. De Ridder, of course, is looking to even the score, while Malykhin is on the cusp of history, as he vies to become a three-division MMA world champion.

While ‘Sladkiy’ is known for knocking people out, he revealed his plans of forcing the BJJ black belt to tap in their upcoming rematch. He told ONE:

“No one has ever won over de Ridder via a guillotine [choke]. No one has ever done it before. So I’m going to kill him with his own weapon.”

ONE 166: Qatar will air live on March 1 free of charge for existing Prime Video subscribers in the United States and Canada