Reinier De Ridder Successfully Defends ONE Championship World Title

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Reinier de Ridder successfully defended his ONE Championship Middleweight World title after defeating Vitaly Bigdash by submission in the first round in ONE 159 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, Singapore, Friday, 22 July evening.

As defending champion, de Ridder played cool by closing the gap early and trying to launch a double-leg takedown.

However, Bigdash was able to lock his neck and began pulling the guillotine.

After a few moments of trying to break free from the tight grip of the choke, 'The Dutch Knight' was able to get his head out of the Russian opponent's grasp and he managed to escape the grip that could lead to defeat.

Buying and selling attacks was inevitable, before De Ridder saw an opening to make an inverted triangle submission.

With his head caught in the choke, Bigdash was helpless and the referee stopped the match just as he lost consciousness. De Ridder deserves a $50.000 bonus for his scintillating performances.

In the main event, ONE Atomweight Kickboxing World Champion Janet Todd defeated Lara Fernandez to claim the ONE Interim Atomweight Muay Thai World Title and become World Champion in both sports.

Todd started the game strong, using his precise and well-placed counter-attack to knock out 'Pizza Power' in the first two rounds.

But the Spaniard quickly found his rhythm in the third and fourth rounds, giving the American a fight.

However, in the fifth and final round, Todd increased the intensity of the pressure and forced Fernandez to withdraw, marking his victory.

Thai superstar Muangthai PK.Saenchai managed to get past Russian fighter Vladimir Kuzmin after a tight fight in the Circle.

Muanghthai and Kuzmin came to fight each other openly which was marked by both fighters having their crucial moments in three fierce rounds.

However, neither one managed to dominate the other.

Finally, after nine minutes of action, the judges saw the fight deserved to be won by Thailand through separate decisions with a narrow difference in points.

Here are the full results for ONE 159

Main Match

MMA - Middleweight: Reinier de Ridder defeats Vitaly Bigdash via Submission (Inverted Triangle) at 3:29 minutes of round 1

Muay Thai - Atomweight: Janet Todd defeats Lara Fernandez by unanimous decision

Muay Thai - Bantamweight: Muangthai PK.Saenchai beat Vladimir Kuzmin by Split Decision

Kickboxing - Strawweight: Zhang Peimian beat Aslanbek Zikreev via unanimous decision

Muay Thai - Featherweight: Jamal Yusupov beats Jo Nattawut via unanimous decision

MMA - Strawweight: Danial Williams defeats Zelang Zhaxi via Knockout at 4:20 minutes of round 1

Opening Match

Muay Thai - Lightweight: Sinsamut Klinmee beat Liam Nolan via Knockout at 0:05 of round 2

MMA - Lightweight: Marat Gafurov beat Ariel Sexton via TKO at 4:15 minutes of round 3

MMA - Welterweight: Valmir Da Silva defeats Jin Tae Ho via Submission (Guillotine) at 4:55 minutes of round 2