Reinier de Ridder reveals his team told him not to fight Anatoly Malykhin again

Former ONE light heavyweight and current middleweight world champion Reinier de Ridder recently sat down with South China Morning Post and addressed his last outing MMA, a KO loss to ONE double-champ Anatoly Malykhin.

Needless to say, it wasn't an easy talk for 'The Dutch Knight'.

De Ridder was swiftly dispatched by the undefeated Russian KO artist and has his "O" taken away from his record. He then tried to bounce back from the loss by competing in submission grappling against IBJJF world champion Tye Ruotolo at ONE Fight Night 10, but lost via unanimous decision.

Regarding his return to MMA and possibly facing Malykhin again in a rematch for the belt, the Dutch grappling specialist told ONE Championship:

"Most people I spoke to asked me to not fight him again. I have to, there's no other way. I know I can do so much better."

Watch the full interview here:

After seeing the dismantling De Ridder suffered against Malykhin late last year, we certainly understand why people close to him aren't too jazzed about a rematch. With a competitive mind like Reinier de Ridder's, however, jumping back into the fire is almost beyond questioning.

It's like when an ultra-competitive skateboarder falls off and scrapes his knee. He doesn't decide to give away his skateboard. Instead, he brushes himself off and goes again with the motivation to be better than his last run. Failures aren't full stops in an athlete's career -- they're more like semicolons. Opportunities to put a short pause, regroup, and start again.

With back-to-back losses, Reinier de Ridder is not in the best place in his career at the moment. But if there's one thing we learned about previously undefeated fighters who suffer their first loss, it can either break them or make them even better.

In Reinier de Ridder's case, with his attitude of still willing to face Malykhin in a rematch, we can say that there's a strong chance that the loss has made him an even more complete fighter.

At the moment, no official fight has been linked to De Ridder yet. Malykhin, however, is bound for a massive fight against ONE heavyweight world champion Arjan Bhullar at ONE Friday Fights 22 one June 23. The bout is to unify Malykhin's ONE interim heavyweight world title with Bhullar's to determine the division's undisputed king.