Reinier de Ridder Seeking Redemption at ONE 166

While de Ridder is defending his ONE MMA middleweight title against Anatoly Malykhin, this bout comes with extremely high stakes.

Previously undefeated, de Ridder (16-1) lost in emphatic fashion in December of 2022 to Malykhin. It was a one-sided affair as Malykhin pieced apart de Ridder, beating him by TKO in just over four-and-a-half minutes.

That bout won Malykhin the ONE MMA Light Heavyweight Championship. Since then, he won and unified the ONE MMA Heavyweight Championship. If Malykhin (13-0) wins on Friday, he will become a simultaneous three-division champion.

“I’d never lost before, and I got knocked out viciously,” said de Ridder. “So it was very easy to be motivated for this one. It was really easy to train hard. I’ve studied every mistake I made in the first fight, and I’ve been working to correct all of them. It will be nice to shut some people up.”

If de Ridder wins this fight, he will do more than extend his title reign. A victory means he also gives Malykhin his first loss, the same indignity Malykhin bestowed upon him.

“This is strange to say, but after you win a belt, the belt becomes less interesting,” said de Ridder. “I don’t care about the weight class. I want to beat him. This is my shot at redemption.”

As for their initial bout, de Ridder strayed from what made him so dominant in the cage. Malykhin’s disciplined approach should be credited for that, as he moved exceptionally well in and out, and he delivered his powerful right hand. But the bout also highlighted the result of a quiet decline in de Ridder’s unrelenting passion to be the best version of himself.

“I lost myself, I got away from what makes me special,” admitted de Ridder. “I lost the drive to keep improving, and that cost me.

“He hit and hurt me early, and I was never myself after that. The way I moved, my defensive posture, the entries to my takedowns, it doesn’t even look like me.”

As Malykhin pursues a history-making moment, de Ridder is determined to redeem himself.

“After this, I won’t have to have some scary Russian heavyweight on my mind all the time,” said de Ridder. “Expect to see RDR 2.0. It’s going to be me at my best. This is my chance to show who I am, and it’s the fight of my life.”

Brian Ortega overcomes disastrous warmup to defeat Yair Rodríguez

Brian Ortega looked exceptional in his UFC Fight Night victory this past Saturday against Yair Rodríguez.

The win, incredibly, is the first for Ortega since 2020. It vaults him back into contender status, not too far away from featherweight champion Ilia Topuria.

Yet it was nearly an entirely different result. During fight introductions, Ortega inexplicably rolled his ankle.

Ortega struggled in the first round before turning the fight around in the second. He tapped Rodríguez out in the third, reclaiming his recently abandoned spot as one of the UFC’s most elite featherweights.