Newly crowned ONE middleweight champion Reinier de Ridder says he got the fight that he expected against Aung La N Sang at Inside the Matrix on Friday. The main event of the stacked card, which took place with a limited number of fans attending at the Singapore Indoor Arena, saw de Ridder submit the now-former champ early.
“I can take anybody down, I can choke anybody out,” said de Ridder, adding that the “Burmese Python” was “the best guy to take [the belt] from.”
“The Dutch Knight” didn’t waste any time getting N Sang to the ground, and once he did, the hooks were in tight. While his opponent powered up and tried to shake him off, de Ridder stayed glued to his back. When they crashed back down, the rear-naked choke was soon in. “I hope he gets back in the gym, and gets back into jiu-jitsu,” the Dutch fighter later quipped. On a more serious note, he would go on to say that “I have so much trust in my game, I have so much trust in my jiu-jitsu that that I feel like nobody’s going to be able to stop me.”
Speaking to media outlets in a virtual session following the event, Aung La N Sang suggested he wanted to stay busy, even if it meant missing out on an immediate rematch. Aung La also holds light heavyweight gold in the company, but the plan moving forward is to stay at middleweight for now.
Asked if he believed the ex-champ deserved an immediate rematch, de Ridder replied by saying that “I said going into this fight, I said I wouldn’t be able to not do it. But after this, maybe let him fight someone else. I’m not sure, it doesn’t matter to me right now.” Instead, de Ridder is looking to celebrate with a few drinks, and get back home to his family. And put his belt on display.
“I’ll put this up in the gym, and hope I’m going to inspire a lot of people around me. If I can do it, who couldn’t?” he stated.
Asked who comes next, if not Aung La N Sang, the newly crowned champion exclaimed “I don’t care! We’ll see, man, we’ll see. Not right now.”
Watch the full ONE Championship: Inside the Matrix post-fight interview with Reinier de Ridder above.
