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#4. Reinier de Ridder becomes a double champ on six days' notice - ONE Championship on TNT 4
In 2021, ONE Championship double champ Reinier 'The Dutch Knight' de Ridder achieved something more incredible than winning a second belt. He won it on six days' notice.
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'The Dutch Knight' first shocked the world by submitting dominant former double champ 'The Burmese Python' Aung La Nsang inside one round.
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Aung La was the face of ONE Championship, breaking through the mainstream by putting his home country of Myanmar on the map. The Burmese champion was 11-1 in his last 12 bouts before getting decimated by de Ridder.
After taking Aung La's middleweight belt, de Ridder snatched the former double champ's light heavyweight title in a fight he took on six days' notice. After Aung La's original foe Vitaly Bigdash tested positive for COVID-19, de Ridder stepped in.
With people still seeing his initial win as a fluke, de Ridder silenced all critics with a five-round dismantling of the heralded double champ. His performance was nothing short of incredible. He manhandled Aung La like he didn't belong in the cage with him.
Watch the full fight here:
#3. Stamp Fairtex submits a grappling specialist - ONE Championship: Winter Warriors 2
Former ONE Championship atomweight kickboxing and Muay Thai champion Stamp Fairtex has truly come a long way since transitioning to MMA in 2018.
The Muay Thai phenom had one of the best years in ONE Championship as she plowed her way through all her outings in 2021. En route to winning ONE Championship's atomweight Grand Prix tournament, Stamp surprised everyone with each performance.
Stamp avenged her only career loss to ground specialist Alyona Rassohyna in the quarter-finals, then out-classed Julie Mezabarba in the semi-finals. Leading up to the finals against wrestling prodigy Ritu Phogat, Stamp had already proven that her ground game is increasingly becoming legit.
Ritu Phogat, however, was deemed levels above the grapplers Stamp fought in the past. Fighters and pundits were predicting that if Stamp was to beat Phogat, she'd have to defend the takedowns and keep the fight on the feet.
Not only would anyone have predicted that Stamp would repel the wrestling attack, no one saw her countering Phogat's legendary top game with submissions off her back.
In the second round, the kickboxing superstar surprisingly locked in a deep triangle choke off her back. Phogat fought the choke valiantly but just like a seasoned submission specialist, Stamp expertly transitioned the hold to an armbar.
After the shocking win, Stamp is one step away from making history by facing ONE's atomweight champ Angela Lee for the belt. If Stamp wins that bout, she will shock the world yet again by becoming ONE's first ever tri-sport champion.
Watch the full fight here:
