Reinier de Ridder reminds Arjan Bhullar that he still wants shot at heavyweight gold

The 31-year-old Dutchman has defeated four opponents in ONE Championship since his arrival in January 2019, extending his perfect streak to 14-0. His latest pair of wins were simply remarkable.

“The Dutch Knight” De Ridder became the first athlete to hand Aung La “The Burmese Python” N Sang back-to-back defeats, and the manner in which he earned those victories sent a stern message to the other athletes vying for a chance to sit atop the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions.

However, De Ridder felt that he could wipe out those entire divisions at any time, so he switched his focus to India’s first-ever Mixed Martial Arts World Champion “Singh” in June of this year.

Anatoly Malykhin taunts ONE Heavyweight champion Arjan Bhullar in latest Instagram post

Both warriors engaged in a war of words. The Dutchman confidently stated that he can finish Bhullar. The latter, meanwhile, laughed off De Ridder’s claims, offering that he has never faced anyone like “Singh.”

Things have been pretty quiet since, but in an interview with ONE Championship this week, “The Dutch Knight” said he still has his eyes firmly set on Bhullar’s gold, as opposed to moving down to welterweight to become a three-division World Champion.

“[A fight with Bhullar] would be more interesting because I’ll give up a lot of weight. He’ll probably have 20 pounds on me, maybe even more. So that might take some more time to finish him,” De Ridder said.

“I might have to put in some more work, tire him out, hit him to the body some more before I get the finish in that fight.”

There is no challenge too big for the Dutchman, so it seems, but the undefeated fighter knows that “Singh” could be the toughest opponent he has ever faced.

Bhullar’s grappling prowess, coupled with his determination to become his country’s first-ever MMA World Champion, has made him unstoppable on the global stage.

Can De Ridder become the sport’s first-ever three-division World Champion, or will Bhullar have the final say and be the first man to hand “The Dutch Knight” his first career defeat?

Source: Media Release