Reinier de Ridder earned his biggest win to date since signing with the UFC in free agency after he stopped three-time NCAA champion wrestler Bo Nickal in a stunning performance but not everybody seemed to be celebrating his victory.
Just moments after de Ridder finished the fight, his former employers at ONE Championship posted a clip that showed him being finished by Anatoly Malykhin, who is the only person to hand him a defeat during his 12-year fighting career. The post from Twitter, which was later deleted by the promotion, read “Anatoly Malykhin put his destructive power on full display in his first fight against Reinier de Ridder.”
While he didn’t see the post before it was removed, de Ridder wasn’t all that surprised that it happened in the first place.
“I didn’t see it and nobody told me yet, but that’s a typical ONE thing to do,” de Ridder told MMA Fighting. “They’re some interesting people there, let’s keep it at that.”
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Despite serving as a two-division champion for ONE, de Ridder’s run with the promotion came to an unceremonious end after he complained about inactivity after only fighting one time between 2023 and 2024.
After he became a free agent and signed with the UFC, de Ridder addressed his exit from the organization by sending a message to all other fighters that “if you’re thinking of signing with ONE Championship, don’t”
He’s obviously moved on with his career with de Ridder now sporting a perfect 3-0 record in the UFC with his fourth fight already booked against former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker in July. It’s safe to say, de Ridder is happy with his decision.
“I’m very happy with the position I’m in, and more and more, I think you get what you deserve,” de Ridder said addressing ONE Championship. “I might have needed the ending that I got there in ONE after all those great years I had before that. Maybe I needed a couple of punches to the head and a couple of losses to set me straight.
“I’m very happy where I’m at now. I feel great. I have a great team at Kill Cliff. Let’s see what the future brings. Let’s see what I can do in this division.”
De Ridder actually suffered back-to-back losses to Malykhin during their two encounters with the Russian taking both his middleweight and light heavyweight championships in consecutive fights.
Those wins helped make Malykhin the first ever three-division champion in ONE after he previously held the heavyweight title, although he eventually lost that belt in a close, controversial decision to Oumar “Reug Reug” Kane.
As much as using Malykhin’s win over him in the now deleted tweet didn’t surprise de Ridder, he promises there’s no bad blood with his former opponent whatsoever. In fact, de Ridder revealed that Malykhin actually sent him a message of congratulations after he scored the knockout win over Nickal.
“He sent me a message as well,” de Ridder said about Malykhin. “He’s a good guy. There’s nothing wrong with the dude.”
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