ONE Championship: Reinier de Ridder trashes Arjan Bhullar, says ‘let me get my shot first’

Undefeated ‘Dutch Knight’ is not prepared to wait any longer in his bid to become a three-division champ

De Ridder mocks Bhullar for being ‘known for sitting out for a very long time’, and also fancies his chances against Anatoly Malykhin

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Reinier de Ridder celebrates after retaining his middleweight title at ONE 159.

Published: 1:09pm, 23 Jul 2022

Reinier de Ridder is not prepared to wait any longer in his bid for what would be a historic third divisional title in ONE Championship.

The undefeated “Dutch Knight” (16-0) made light work of his latest challenger Vitaly Bigdash, submitting the Russian with an inverted triangle to retain his middleweight title in the main event of Friday’s ONE 159 card at Singapore Indoor Stadium.

De Ridder, who also holds the Asian martial arts promotion’s light heavyweight MMA belt, made it clear after the fight he has only one thing on his mind – and that’s taking the heavyweight title, whether it’s from Arjan Bhullar or Anatoly Malykhin.

“This is what I do. I beat champions. I beat every f****** champion,” the 31-year-old said in a post-fight interview. “Now maybe another, maybe a little bit of a heavier one.

“They’re talking about doing Malykhin and Bhullar first, but f*** that s***, man. Let me get my shot first. F*** them. Both of them in the same night, I don’t care.”

Heavyweight king Bhullar (11-1) and interim champ Malykhin (11-0) are set to unify their belts on a future ONE on Prime Video card later this year. The date for the fight has yet to be announced, though, and De Ridder is clearly feeling impatient.