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If you're an MMA fan but haven't been paying attention to ONE Championship double champ Reinier de Ridder, you're sorely missing out. The jiu-jitsu ace has barrelled through the ranks of both the ONE middleweight and light heavyweight divisions. In just five fights across two years in the promotion, 'The Dutch Knight' has risen to legendary status that's rare in the sport.
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In a YouTube video released by ONE, we see how de Ridder stormed out of the gates and dominated his debut opponent, Fan Rong, in the first round. He then followed it up with back-to-back wins over Gilberto Galvao and Leandro Ataides.
However, it was not until October 2020 that the world finally paid attention to de Ridder. 'The Dutch Knight' faced arguably the face of the company at the time, then-double champ Aung La N Sang. 'The Burmese Python' was 11-1 in ONE Championship when he faced de Ridder and was the heavy favorite to win.
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In a shocking turn of events, de Ridder submitted Aung La inside one round, capturing the ONE middleweight title. Reinier de Ridder then proceeded to take the Burmese fighter's light heavyweight belt in a fight he took on less than a week's notice. The Dutchman stepped in after Aung La's original challenger, Vitaly Bigdash, tested positive for COVID-19.
With people still dismissing his first win as a fluke, de Ridder eradicated all doubts with a five-round systematic beatdown of the then-light heavyweight champion. His performance was nothing short of incredible.
Watch the full feature video here:
At ONE Championship: Full Circle, Reinier de Ridder defends his middleweight belt against another aspiring double champ
On February 25 at ONE: Full Circle, Reinier de Ridder returns to defend his middleweight throne against ONE's welterweight champion, Kiamrian 'Brazen' Abbasov. Though de Ridder has aspirations to become MMA's first-ever triple champ, he also plans to solidify his reign by defending one of his belts first.
Against Abbasov, de Ridder will face new challenges as the current welterweight champion is on a five-fight win streak in ONE. Abbasov is a striking phenom and is highly competitive with his grappling as well. Tune in on February 25 to see how de Ridder's grappling assault matches up against Abbasov's more well-rounded approach.
