Fabricio Andrade says Reinier de Ridder ‘surprised’ Anatoly Malykhin with improved striking: “He applied a lot of pressure”
ONE bantamweight MMA world champion Fabricio Andrade recently gave his thoughts on the main event of ONE 166: Qatar between Anatoly Malykhin and Reinier de Ridder for the latter's ONE middleweight MMA world title.
Malykhin and Reinier de Ridder fought for a second time after their first encounter late last year, in which Malykhin KO'd the Dutch world champion for the light-heavyweight strap. This time, however, the grappling-based de Ridder did his assignment and expanded his arsenal, particularly his striking.
This improvement in the Dutch grappler's weapons largely impressed everyone, including Fabricio Andrade, who told Sportskeeda MMA:
"He [de Ridder] tried to take advantage, he applied a lot of pressure, and kinda surprised Malykhin."
Despite being known as a grappling specialist, de Ridder caused some problems against his heavy-handed foe on the feet. He even knocked him down with a punch momentarily in the first round.
Ultimately, however, the power and pressure put on by Malykhin that night was just too hard for Reinier de Ridder to bear. By the time they reached the early minutes of the first round, the Dutch former world champion succumbed to damage and exhaustion, declaring Malykhin the winner and the first-ever simultaneous three-division MMA world champion in history.
Reinier de Ridder proud of his performance against Anatoly Malykhin at ONE 166
Despite losing his belt via TKO at ONE 166, Reinier de Ridder was proud of his performance - chiefly as he became the first man to truly give Anatoly Malykhin real problems on the feet.
In an Instagram post uploaded to his profile, 'The Dutch Knight' shared some photos highlighting his best moments on the feet against 'Sladkiy':
His stepping knee strikes to and straight punches halted the Russian's near-unstoppable forward momentum. Aside from former ONE heavyweight MMA world champion Arjan Bhullar, de Ridder lasted the longest in the Circle against Malykhin.
Regardless of the outcome, de Ridder put on a hell of a fight and stood his ground against one of if not the most frightening strikers in MMA today. He truly should be proud of himself.