When Reinier de Ridder makes his comeback to compete in the mixed martial arts category of ONE Championship, he intends to do so against only the very best competitors.
After suffering the first loss of his career against Anatoly Malykhin at ONE on Prime Video 5 in December of last year, the representative of Combat Brothers hopes to gain the much-needed impetus in the all-encompassing sport. The loss was inflicted by Anatoly Malykhin.
“The Dutch Knight” entered that fight full of self-assurance, having amassed a perfect record of 16-0 as well as two world championships under his belt. However, ‘Sladkiy’ put a stop to his fairytale run by defeating the Dutchman and claiming the light heavyweight world title.
Since then, Reinier de Ridder has had an increased level of motivation to put an end to that poor performance. After what appears to be several months of dedicated training, it would appear that he is looking to pit himself against a worthy middleweight challenger.
The reigning world champion in the ONE Middleweight division told the South China Morning Post:
“I’ve got to put some pressure on myself. I’m interested in meeting somebody new. And I wanted a true test of my abilities this time.”
You can see the entire interview down below:
To tell you the truth, having that frame of mind is the best thing the Dutchman can do for himself while he competes on the international stage of ONE Championship.
Reinier de Ridder entered the Singapore-based organization in 2019 as a somewhat unknown athlete. However, in a little more than 24 months, ‘The Dutch Knight’ became a two-division king with back-to-back victories over ‘The Burmese Python’ Aung La N Sang.
Fans of the ONE Championship hero might anticipate that he will recapture the form that brought him to the pinnacle of mixed martial arts competition if he is able to recover from his first loss with an amazing performance.
