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Having fought twice in the past, reigning ONE middleweight world champion Reinier de Ridder is not too keen on facing off with former division king Aung La N Sang anytime soon.
‘The Dutch Knight’ stripped ‘The Burmese Python’ of his world titles in the two previous meetings. The first to go was the middleweight belt, which de Ridder won by submission (rear-naked choke) in the opening round in October 2020. The light heavyweight gold followed in April 2021 by way of a unanimous decision win.
Given how he has had the number of Aung La so far, Reinier de Ridder feels that there are other battles that need to be made at the moment than having to face his rival for a third time.
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He told The MMA Superfan in an interview:
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“To be honest, I’m not too excited about it right now but we’ll see what happens down the line. I choked him out in the first round the first time, then I dominated him in five rounds the second time. There’s not too much to prove there.”
Check out the interview below:
Reinier de Ridder will take on a different challenge when he returns to action on May 5 at ONE Fight Night 10 on Prime Video in Colorado, U.S.A.
He will battle American Tye Ruotolo in a middleweight submission grappling showdown. It is part of the 11-fight offering put up for ONE Championship’s first-ever live on-ground U.S. event, which is available to North American fans with an active Prime Video subscription.
The contest marks the return to submission grappling for ‘The Dutch Knight,’ who last fought under grappling rules in March last year where he settled for a draw.
Reinier de Ridder is coming off a defeat in his last fight back in December, losing the ONE light heavyweight world title to Russian Anatoly Malykhin, and is training hard to get back on the winning track when he collides with undefeated Ruotolo.
Incidentally, Aung La is also part of the groundbreaking ONE U.S. show, taking on Fan Rong of China in a middleweight match.
