“That’s why I’m here” - Reinier de Ridder aims for immortality as a three-division MMA world champion

Reinier de Ridder has achieved a lot in his short time with ONE Championship. The undefeated Dutchman has produced seven wins since debuting in 2019, with five wins via finish and two world championships picked up along the way.

‘The Dutch Knight’ has already defeated the likes of Kiamrian Abbasov, Vitaly Bigdash, and Aung La N Sang to name a few. At ONE on Prime Video 5, de Ridder will face another world champion in Anatoly Malykhin as he looks to defend his light heavyweight throne against the ONE interim heavyweight world champ.

Though he is already a double champion, de Ridder is constantly searching for the next big challenge of his career. As he prepares to face a natural heavyweight, the defending world champion has eyed up the possibility of competing at the weight above later on.

In an interview with Morning Kombat, ‘The Dutch Knight’ spoke about the idea of becoming a three-division world champion, a feat yet to be accomplished at an elite level:

“That’s why I’m here. I want to do something special. And that would be something very special. It’s something I’ve been looking at. I’ve been asking for it for a while.”

Watch the full interview below:

Reinier de Ridder will defend his light heavyweight world championship against Anatoly Malykhin on December 3 at ONE on Prime Video 5. The event will be broadcast live and for free on Amazon’s streaming service for all its subscribers across North America.

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Reinier de Ridder "not afraid to take some risks" to get an advantageous position

ONE middleweight and light heavyweight world champion Reinier de Ridder is not opposed to putting himself in dangerous situations to get results. The Dutchman demonstrated this in his middleweight world title defense against former titleholder Vitaly Bigdash at ONE 159

Discussing his July bout with Bigdash on the Morning Kombat podcast, ’The Dutch Knight' spoke about his most recent appearance inside the circle:

“The moment I got [Vitaly Bigdash] down, he was trying with the guillotine, but the moment I popped out, I was dangerous right away. Hit him with some good shots. Got to side control. In MMA, there’s usually not a lot of time to finish, so at that point, I had like two-and-a-half minutes left.”

Reinier de Ridder continued, saying:

“My corner was yelling. So I had to take some risks, and I’m not afraid to take some risks. I ended up on bottom like I did this time. It was cool to get him with the inverted triangle, finally.”

The submission victory improved de Ridder’s perfect record to 7-0 inside the circle and 16-0 overall. At ONE on Prime Video 5 on December 2, he will defend his light heavyweight world championship for the first time against ONE interim heavyweight world champion Anatoly Malykhin.