ONE Championship announces Reinier de Ridder-Kiamrian Abbasov middleweight title fight, Thanh Le-Garry Tonon featherweight title bout set

ONE Championship has announced two more blockbuster fights for a stacked 2022 first quarter slate.

At ONE: Heavy Hitters, the promotion's CEO Chatri Sityodtong announced that two-division world champion Reinier de Ridder will be defending his middleweight title against current welterweight king Kiamrian Abbasov at ONE: Full Circle on February 25. Sityodtong shared his thoughts on de Ridder's skills:

"Reinier has the scariest body type, just like Roger Gracie. That's the thing. When you have high-level jiu-jitsu and your body type is long and lanky, you have tremendous leverage and tremendous finishing ability."

Sityodtong also set up Thanh Le to defend his ONE featherweight title against Garry Tonon at ONE: Lights Out on March 11. The ONE Championship boss seemed excited for the matchup:

"Garry Tonon is arguably the greatest pound-for-pound submission artist in the world today. Explosive, dynamic. He goes for heel hooks and chokes. He's unbelievable. Thanh Le is a mystery and a puzzle to solve. Amazing, weird taekwondo dynamics, yet phenomenal on the ground."

The announcement of these blockbuster title fights came merely a day after Sityodtong revealed the return of the star-studded ONE X card, featuring the likes of Demetrious Johnson, Rodtang Jitmuangnon, Angela Lee, Stamp Fairtex, Adriano Moraes and Yuya Wakamatsu.

Le was originally scheduled to fight Tonon for the featherweight title at ONE X, before the event was postponed due to the new spike in worldwide COVID-19 cases.

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ONE Championship welterweight king Kiamrian Abbasov aims to take two-division champ distinction from Reinier de Ridder

For ONE: Full Circle, current welterweight champion Kiamrian Abbasov will have to bulk up to have a shot at taking Reinier de Ridder's middleweight belt.

The Dutchman is also the current light heavyweight champion and has a pristine MMA record of 14-0.

Although Abbasov has been undefeated for the last four years, he still has a tall task ahead of him if he wants to land the first blemish on the dominant nine-year run of 'The Dutch Knight'.