In July, fight fans were shocked to see that Reinier de Ridder would be competing at UAE Warriors 51 despite reportedly still being under contract with ONE Championship. “The Dutch Knight” accomplished great things in ONE where he reigned as a two-weight world champion.
Following his quick win on UAE Warriors, it was announced that de Ridder had signed to the UFC where he will make his Octagon debut at UFC Vegas 100 on November 9. The Dutch competitor is looking forward to locking horns with Gerald Meerschaert and beginning a new chapter in his career.
De Ridder has said in interviews that he can’t go into details about his exit from ONE Championship but that doesn’t mean that he can’t reflect on his time there. He won seven fights in a row in the promotion to become the middleweight and light heavyweight champion, earning him comparisons to the other top fighters in his weight class that were competing in the UFC.
Though things may not have ended on the best of terms, his time as a ONE Championship athlete is still a huge part of his career. The final few stages of his time in the promotion were defined by two things, losses to the undefeated Russian Anatoly Malykhin and periods of inactivity which he says weren’t his preference.
In an interview with MMA Fighting to preview his Octagon debut, de Ridder spoke about how he looks back at his time in ONE and what he is grateful for and where he wishes it could have been different.
“It’s been good for a long time and it’s been bad for a pretty long time now as well. I think they’re struggling in a sense and some stuff is just not being handled the way it should be but it is what it is. I’ve had a very good run in the beginning, they gave me a lot of fights. I really gave my career, the start of my career, in ONE I was really able to make it a full-time thing, fighting. So I’m very grateful for that part but the last couple of years weren’t that great.”
