Reinier De Ridder Is Ready to Follow Demetrious Johnson’s Path to a Mixed Rule Fight

ONE Championship is a unique martial arts platform that presents fans with multiple facets of the art on the highest level with the best athletes in the world. Currently, the dual World Champion Reinier de Ridder is perhaps the promotion’s best fighter. And the Dutch fighter is looking to explore other aspects of martial arts that ONE brings.

The inspiration behind it—the promotion brought a mega-event, ONE X, on its 10-year-anniversary and put on a spectacle for fight fans. The extravaganza, headlined by the two best Atomweight fighters (Angela Lee & Stamp Fairtex) in the world, had a historic mixed rule bout between Demetrious Johnson and Rodtang Jitmuangnon that stood out among the other fantastic fights on the card.

Consequently, fans foresee more mixed rules & the crossover bouts that they only imagined but never thought were possible.

Reinier de Ridder sat down with EssentiallySports’ Arunaditya Aima and talked about the forbidden door to a special rule bout. The two-division ONE World Champion showed interest in going through the adversary.

“Yeah, why not? If it’s something somewhat interesting, yeah, of course,” ‘The Dutch Knight’ suggested.

Also Read – “I Have Never Been Impressed With Bhullar” – Reinier De Ridder Eyes Third ONE World Title Against ‘Not That Spectacular’ Heavyweight Champion

The Combat Brothers fighter has already secured two World Championships in his six-fight career in the promotion. Also, he went toe-to-toe with the Jiujitsu ace Andre Galvao in a Submission Grappling contest at ONE X. Thus, it would be no surprise for any ONE Championship fan if de Ridder finds himself in mixed rules bouts.

However, right now, the champion is looking at either Vitaly Bigdash or Arjan ‘Singh’ Bhullar as his next opponent. But he is keeping other options open.

Reinier de Ridder wants to fight Alain Ngalani

Apart from showing interest in the special-rules bout, the dual weight World Champion also had another intriguing opponent in mind.

“I have been saying for a while. Why don’t do, if we’re doing other stuff right now, why don’t we do Ngalani in the Muay Thai or kickboxing? That will be fun too, right?” submitted the World Champion.

Alain Ngalani, the team Impakt MMA Academy standout, is a veteran of the sport. He has won four World Championships in the heavyweight division in kickboxing and Muay Thai. The devastating Cameroonian fighter holds a quick 11-second knockout record in the heavyweight division. Most of his finishes have come by first-round KO. Thus, he has a reputation as a serious knockout artist.

Also Read – “You Can Develop Technically” – Reinier De Ridder Reveals His ‘Theory on Getting Better in MMA’ With a Gegard Mousasi-Reference

However, as per the ONE Championship athlete profile, Ngalani is a former ONE athlete. Thus, the fight between these two ONE stars doesn’t seem realistic, but one man that could pull this off is—ONE CEO & Chairman, Chatri Sityodtong.