ONE Championship: Chatri says Reinier De Ridder suffered ‘kind of knockout that changes fighters’
- CEO says De Ridder was ‘knocked so senseless’ by Malykhin that he was ‘still fighting when he came to’ in Manila
- ‘It’s not my job to stop the fight, just to finish it,’ says new light heavyweight champ, as Dutchman is stretchered out after a brutal beating
After watching Reinier de Ridder get stretchered out of Manila’s Mall of Asia Arena on Saturday morning, ONE Championship boss Chatri Sityodtong admitted his beating at the hands of Anatoly Malykhin was “the kind of knockout that changes fighters”.
De Ridder was dropped late in the first round by a check right hook from the Russian, who followed up with four vicious hammer fists on the ground to snatch the ONE light heavyweight MMA title in emphatic fashion.
De Ridder was helped by medical officials in the ONE Circle, but tried to get up instead of getting onto the stretcher.
He was still out of it, though, and could not even get to his knees, let alone his feet, and fell back down to the canvas.
“He was knocked so senseless that he was still fighting,” Chatri told a post-event press scrum. “That also speaks to RDR’s warrior spirit. He got hit so hard, but when he came to he was still trying to fight, he was like ‘I’m gonna go for a single leg’ against our doctor.”
“He was out of it for the last few minutes,” Chatri added. “I just got a quick update from Doc Warren [Wang] who says he’s OK. But they’re sending him to the hospital for CAT scans and MRIs. Let’s see.