Two-division ONE Championship title-holder Reinier de Ridder ran into a couple of familiar faces during his recent visit to the United States – most notably his two-time opponent Aung La N Sang. The two ONE stars crossed paths when the 31-year-old Dutchman De Ridder stopped by Aung La’s training home of Sanford MMA in South Florida. They even did some training together. It sounds like it was a fruitful and enjoyable experience. “[It was] special, man,” De Ridder told the Post on Monday, shedding some light on his training session with his former foe. “After those fights it was very good to see him. We got some time to chat. He met my wife, my kids. It was very special, very good. I learned some stuff from him. We had some kick-boxing rounds. It was just good. It was very good.” De Ridder first met N Sang in the ONE Circle in October 2020. On that night, he defeated the 36-year-old Burmese-American by first-round submission to win the Asian martial arts promotion’s middleweight title. Their second meeting occurred in April 2021, when De Ridder challenged N Sang for a second title up in the light heavyweight division. The Dutchman once again came out on top in the rematch, swiping the light heavyweight strap with a unanimous decision win. Despite their rivalry in the ONE Circle, there is clearly no animosity between their teams. In fact, N Sang’s head coach Henri Hooft actually invited De Ridder to come and train in Florida after the pair’s second fight. “Obviously I’ve got some history with Aung and Henri, so I spoke to Henri last time and he said, ‘Come on out, let’s have some fun’,” De Ridder said. “So I went out to Florida and made it happen. It was amazing. It was such a good time.” N Sang is not the only ONE Championship star De Ridder encountered on US soil. He also made a pit stop at American Top Team, not far from Sanford MMA, where he did some training with ONE heavyweight contender and BJJ icon Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Reinier de Ridder (@deriddermma) “There’s a lot of good guys there, of course,” De Ridder said of his training at American Top Team. “Buchecha was on the mats so I said, ‘Let’s do some rounds’ and we did. It was amazing. [They were] hard rounds – it was one of the hardest sessions I’ve done since I’ve been here [in the US]. It was good fun, man. “I really respect Buchecha a lot. He’s one of the best to ever do it and he’s making a great transition into MMA. He’s doing very well at the moment I think. “He has a bright future, and it’s an honour for me to train with him, and I hope to do it again sometime soon.” ONE Championship’s submission grappling ‘changing lives’ says Buchecha The final stop on De Ridder’s US tour – and the place he was most excited to visit when he first left his home in the Netherlands – was the Austin, Texas headquarters of legendary coach John Danaher and his proteges Garry Tonon and Gordon Ryan, both of whom are under contract with ONE. “It’s been a real pleasure,” he said of his training in Austin. “Gordon’s skill is on another level. Danaher’s way of teaching has really showed me a lot of stuff. Even small stuff like the words he uses – I’ve noticed that everything he says, everything he does is thought about. This is very interesting to me because I’m a very analytical guy myself. “I can see they spend a lot of time on that. They really perfected their game. “The technical ability, their focus on the details, it’s something that I’ve never seen in the gym before.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Reinier de Ridder (@deriddermma) It was clearly an educational journey for De Ridder, but do not expect the Dutchman to move his training to the United States full-time. “I would never, never give up my home,” he said. “I need my friends and my family back home to prepare for a fight, but I’m planning on doing this more often. So, after every fight, I might travel for a bit, see some different gyms, get some different looks, and then I’ll put it to work back home.” De Ridder (15-0) has not competed since he battled BJJ legend Andre Galvao to a draw in a middleweight submission grappling match at ONE X last month in Singapore. He does not currently have a fight booked, but hopes to defend both his middleweight and light heavyweight titles by the end of the year.