Reinier de Ridder aims to become ‘king of ONE Championship’ by finishing Kiamrian Abbasov at Full Circle
- Undefeated ‘Dutch Knight’ plans to ‘dominate from start to finish’ in middleweight title defence against welterweight champ in Singapore
- Contenders Aung La N Sang and Vitaly Bigdash are backing Kyrgyzstani to win, but De Ridder laughs off their predictions
Reinier de Ridder already has two ONE Championship titles, but he is still not satisfied.
The Dutchman earned his belts with back-to-back defeats of Aung La N Sang, first defeating the Burmese-American star by submission at middleweight in October 2020, then six months later by unanimous decision at light heavyweight.
At Friday night’s ONE: Full Circle card in Singapore, De Ridder will attempt to defend his middleweight crown against Kyrgyzstan’s Kiamrian Abbasov, who reigns over the Asian martial arts promotion’s welterweight division.
While he will not receive Abbasov’s title in victory, the undefeated 31-year-old believes a win over the welterweight champion is significant under any circumstances.
“The most interesting part is that he is a champion as well,” De Ridder said in a pre-fight interview. “I’ve beat the middleweight champion, I’ve beat the light heavyweight champion. I can now beat the welterweight champion. After that, heavyweight, and I’m the king of ONE.”