“Slowly but surely” – Reinier de Ridder plugging the holes in his game to get ready for Anatoly Malykhin rematch

Reinier de Ridder took some time away from the spotlight after suffering the first loss of his career at ONE on Prime Video 5.

‘The Dutch Knight’ knew that he had to go away and work on some things to ensure that when he did come back, he had learned from his setbacks.

At ONE 166 on March 1 inside the Lusail Sports Arena, he will look to put this right by securing revenge over Anatoly Malykhin.

With his ONE middleweight world championship on the line, Reinier de Ridder knows how important this fight is for his career but those stakes will bring the best out of him.

The defending champion told InTheCage in a recent interview that slowly working his way back into full momentum allowed him to really evolve:

“I really took some time to recover, really took some time to work on my mental game again to get back in the gym, slowly but surely, and I've been working on all the small mistakes I made during the fight.”

Watch the full interview below:

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Reinier de Ridder was forced to learn some vital lessons against Anatoly Malykhin

ONE on Prime Video 5 was a difficult night for Reinier de Ridder, but he believes that it taught him some lessons that he needed to learn at the time.

The former double-champ had been absolutely dominant during his time in ONE Championship and was yet to face anyone that could really threaten him.

This all changed in his first clash with Anatoly Malykhin, when the undefeated Russian behemoth stopped him in the first round to end de Ridder’s dominant undefeated run.

The middleweight champ will now look to be better than ever when he faces Malykhin once again, looking to use everything he learned from the first fight to his advantage,

ONE 166: Qatar will air live and free via Prime Video for North American viewers with an active subscription.