“It was fun to be on the other side for once” - Reinier de Ridder looks back on getting trapped in guillotine choke by Vitaly Bigdash

Reinier de Ridder delivered perhaps his most impressive win at ONE 159 in July. Defending his middleweight world title against former title-holder Vitaly Bigdash, ‘The Dutch Knight’ scored a first-round submission via an awe-inspiring inverted triangle. Before that, de Ridder appeared to be in some legitimate trouble.

Shooting in for an early takedown, Bigdash grabbed hold of de Ridder’s neck and pulled guard, sinking in a fairly tight guillotine. Just when it started to look like ‘The Dutch Knight’ could suffer his first loss, he was able to fight his way out of the hold and deliver another highlight-reel submission.

Discussing the adversity he faced in an interview with Morning Kombat, de Ridder downplayed the hold, claiming he wasn’t in as much danger as it appeared in real-time:

“It wasn’t that tight. It was not a big risk. He was not close by any means. But I had to defend for a little bit. So it was fun to be on the other side for once.”

Reinier de Ridder will attempt to give fans another epic finish on Friday, December 2 when he heads to Manila for ONE on Prime Video 5. The undefeated two-division champion will put his light heavyweight crown on the line against the reigning ONE interim heavyweight champion, Anatoly Malykhin.

Watch the full interview below:

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Reinier de Ridder reflects on Arjan Bhullar beating Brandon Vera

After capturing both the middleweight and light heavyweight world championships, Reinier de Ridder made it clear that he was gunning for a third title, eyeing the ONE heavyweight champion Arjan Bhullar.

Bhullar captured the ONE heavyweight crown in May 2021, knocking out former titleholder Brandon ‘The Truth’ Vera. Discussing Bhullar’s world title win on Morning Kombat, Reinier de Ridder was asked if he was impressed with Bhullar’s victory over Vera:

“No, not really. To be frank, he beat Brandon Vera, of course. But Vera was really old already. Not any disrespect to Brandon, but he was far out of his prime. Wasn’t a great win by any stretch of the imagination.”

‘The Dutch Knight’ continued, saying:

“I think he still had a lot to prove and he missed the opportunity. He never really proved anything yet. It’s just really hard to get anything done with him and I guess that’s his legacy after this.”

While it may not be for the heavyweight title, Reinier de Ridder still gets his wish of facing a ONE heavyweight titleholder in the ONE on Prime Video 5 main event this Friday night. The event will air live and for free with an active subscription to Amazon Prime Video in North America.