Vitaly Bigdash’s top 3 performances in ONE Championship

Vitaly Bigdash is a certified superstar in ONE Championship and he isn’t close to stopping.

The 37-year-old will challenge Reinier de Ridder for the ONE middleweight world championship at their namesake card ONE 159: De Ridder vs. Bigdash on July 22 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

The match against de Ridder, who’s also the ONE light heavyweight world champion, will be Bigdash’s fourth world title fight in ONE Championship and it’s an atmosphere he’s excelled in.

Bigdash entered ONE Championship with a perfect 7-0 record and his first fight in the organization was even for the ONE middleweight world title against then-champion Igor Svirid in 2015.

Since that debut match, Bigdash has been nothing but remarkable in the sport.

Winning is nothing new to Bigdash, but here are three victories that might just trump every win the big Russian has had in ONE Championship.

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#3. Vitaly Bigdash vs. Yuki Niimura (2018)

Vitaly Bigdash was already an exciting submission specialist before he even arrived at ONE Championship. But it wouldn’t be until his fifth fight in the promotion that the Russian fighter would fully display his limb-breaking arsenal against Yuki Niimura.

Bigdash and Niimura had their match in December 2018 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the same city where the Russian made his debut.

Using his grappling to good use, Bigdash controlled the match on the ground and it was there that he rained punishment on the former Pancrase middleweight champion.

Bigdash landed some vicious strikes from above that opened up Niimura’s eyebrow, but ground and pound wouldn’t be the one that ended the match.

Upon taking control of Niimura’s neck with a figure four, Bigdash proceeded to lock in a reverse triangle that forced the Japanese fighter to submit 4:24 into the first round.

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#2. Vitaly Bigdash vs. Igor Svirid (2015)

It was the fight that started the legend.

Vitaly Bigdash was immediately thrown into the wolves when he challenged then ONE middleweight world champion Igor Svirid in October 2015 in Kuala Lumpur.

If that wasn’t enough, the fight had no feeling-out process with Svirid jumping into hunting mode the moment the bell rang. It was a brutal affair from start to finish, with the Kazakh fighter getting the early offense and putting Bigdash on the defensive.

Bigdash, however, found his rhythm in the final minute of the first round landing brutal knees to Svirid’s head and even locking in a rear-naked choke. The submission hold, however, barely lasted a second with the bell ringing to signify the end of the first.

With momentum behind him, Bigdash continued where he left off and put Svirid to the canvas with another vicious knee strike to the face. Barely a minute into the second, Bigdash captured his debut win and the ONE middleweight world title after pounding Svirid’s head multiple times with hammer fists.

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#1. Vitaly Bigdash vs. Aung La N Sang 1 (2017)

This was the fight that ignited an iconic rivalry in ONE Championship. Vitaly Bigdash vs. Aung La N Sang in 2017 was the first part of rivalry that pushed both fighters to legendary status.

Their first meeting was in January 2017, with Bigdash defending the ONE middleweight world championship against Aung La.

Pure dominance was what Bigdash did to Aung La in Jakarta, Indonesia and there was nothing the Burmese legend could do against the Russian’s continuous onslaught.

Bigdash utilized his clinch to land some devastating elbows down Aung La’s head. Displaying his full offensive arsenal, Bigdash even sent the match to the ground where he quickly imposed his will against ‘The Burmese Python’.

It was Bigdash’s show for five rounds and his dominant performance saw him successfully retain the ONE middleweight world title.

Since that fateful meeting, Bigdash and Aung La met two more times with the Russian leading their head-to-head 2-1.