Exclusive | ONE Championship: Reinier de Ridder to fight Anatoly Malykhin in Manila main event
- Undefeated Dutchman will collide with Russian at ONE’s first event in the Philippines for nearly three years on December 3
- De Ridder making first defence of light heavyweight belt against interim heavyweight champion
Reinier de Ridder will defend his light heavyweight title against Anatoly Malykhin in the main event of ONE Championship’s first card in Manila for nearly three years, a source has told the Post.
Interim heavyweight king Malykhin will drop down to challenge two-division champ De Ridder, who also holds the Singapore-based martial arts promotion’s middleweight MMA belt, at ONE on Prime Video 5 in the Philippines.
The undefeated “Dutch Knight” has yet to defend the light heavyweight crown, which he took from Aung La N Sang via unanimous decision in April 2021.
Both De Ridder and Malykhin saw fights fall through in the last two months, which led to them calling out each other.
Malykhin has long been set for a title unification bout against Arjan Bhullar, but the heavyweight champion has not fought in 18 months after lengthy contract renewal negotiations, and an injury which required surgery in August.