Reinier de Ridder’s inverted triangle on Vitaly Bigdash wins ONE’s 2022 MMA submission of the year award

Reinier de Ridder has successfully made a name for himself in ONE Championship as a noted submission artist, and he added credibility to his resume by providing one of the standout moments in the circle in the year that just passed.

The 32-two-year-old reigning ONE middleweight world champion successfully defended his belt against challenger Vitaly Bigdash of Russia at ONE 159 in July last year. De Ridder's first-round technical submission due to an inverted triangle choke was given the nod as ONE’s 2022 MMA Submission of the Year.

It was de Ridders' second triumphant defense of the world title he took from Aung La N Sang in October 2020. In giving the year-end submission award to de Ridder’s inverted triangle choke, ONE Championship considered its uniqueness and the dramatic way that he executed it.

ONE recognized that inverted triangles are difficult to execute, but despite that, 'The Dutch Knight' showed his top-class skill set as a submission artist, displaying both fluidity and power to squeeze the lights out of Bigdash.

Bigdash initially had Reinier De Ridder in trouble and was in a solid position for a submission win early on before the champ turned the tables on him en route to winning the fight and retaining the middleweight gold.

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Christian Lee says Reinier de Ridder impressed him the most in 2022

Talent recognizes talent. Two-division world champion 'The Warrior' Christian Lee gave props to fellow ONE Championship titleholder Reinier de Ridder for the solid year he had despite ending 2022 on a losing note.

Lee highlighted that prior to losing the ONE light heavyweight world title to Anatoly Malykhin in December, de Ridder was impressive in his form, winning two straight middleweight world title defenses.

In an interview with ONE Championship, Lee said:

“I think [Reinier] de Ridder did a great job this year, I know that he just had a tough loss to [Anatoly] Malykhin but before that, the string of wins he put together was pretty impressive.”

For 2023, de Ridder is expected to be targeted by contenders for the middleweight throne, with the possibility of him going after the ONE light heavyweight belt once again. Of course, Malykhin could also consider moving further down to middleweight to do what Reinier De Ridder could not achieve -- win a world title in a third weight class.