“I get a chance to redeem myself” – Reinier de Ridder says he asked for Anatoly Malykhin rematch and it was delivered

Reigning ONE middleweight MMA world champion Reinier de Ridder is relishing the opportunity to once again face the first athlete to give him his professional career, Anatoly Malykhin, in a rematch on March 1, in the headliner of ONE 166.

‘The Dutch Knight’ and Sladkiy’ will have a second installment of their heated rivalry inside the Lusail Sports Arena in Qatar, ONE Championship’s first-ever spectacle in the Middle East country.

In his appearance on the InTheCage YouTube channel recently, Reinier de Ridder is glad that the world’s largest martial arts opportunity has given him a chance to even his score with the Russian knockout artist after saying:

“I'm very happy that they finally offered me this fight, it's the one that I've been asking for. So I'm happy it's happening. I'm happy I get a chance to redeem myself and to correct the mistakes I made so let's see if I can.”

See the interview below:

Malykhin scored a vicious first-round victory against de Ridder in their first meeting at ONE on Prime Video 5 in December 2022 to become a two-division world champion and dethrone him from his reign in the light heavyweight division.

Since then, de Ridder hasn’t tasted a victory because he also absorbed a unanimous decision loss at the hands of Tye Ruotolo in their submission grappling match at ONE Fight Night 10 in May 2023.

---

Reinier de Ridder believes that he is better than Anatoly Malykhin and is out to prove it

Although their first meeting didn’t go in his favor, Reinier de Ridder has picked up several valuable lessons from it, and he promises to show that he is a better overall fighter than Malykhin. He pointed out that he just needs to believe it.

Additionally, the Combat Brothers representative has shored up his mental preparation for this impending match and has put his previous loss behind him to come in with a fresh mindset and game plan.

ONE 166: Qatar is available live and for free to all Prime Video subscribers in North America on March 1.