Reigning ONE middleweight MMA world champion Reinier de Ridder reflects on the pivotal moment in his career when he faced Anatoly Malykhin at ONE on Prime Video 5 in 2022.
He contemplates the possibilities of what might have transpired if he had managed to weather Malykhin’s first-round onslaught and regrouped in the corner for the second frame.
In an interview with Sherdog, ‘The Dutch Knight’ delves into the realm of hypotheticals, pondering the alternate outcomes in a scenario where he had endured just a bit longer. “That was something that I was thinking about the first few months after the fight, if only I could’ve survived a minute more,” De Ridder reveals.
Known for his adept grappling skills, De Ridder typically imposes his game plan early in his bouts. However, against Malykhin, he found himself unable to dictate the pace and fell into his opponent’s trap.
The match took a grim turn for De Ridder when he faced a barrage of strikes and succumbed to a devastating right hand with less than 30 seconds remaining in the opening round.
The question lingers: Could ‘RDR’ have orchestrated a miraculous comeback following such a punishing assault?
