ONE 159 Results: Reinier de Ridder chokes out Vitaly Bigdash

(James Goyder is the owner/editor of AsianMMA.com)

Reinier de Ridder continues to dominate ONE Championship’s middleweight division. The undefeated Dutchman scored the 15th win of his career at the expense of Vitaly Bigdash on Friday in Singapore.

The middleweight title fight headlined ONE 159 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. Bigdash was looking to recapture a title he held five years ago, but lost at the hands of Aung La Nsang.

De Ridder beat La Nsang twice to become the ONE Championship middleweight and light heavyweight champion. He was defending the latter for the second time and needed less than a round to get the job done.

Bigdash caught de Ridder in a guillotine as the Dutchman shot for an early takedown. It looked deep and for a few moments it appeared the champion’s perfect professional record was about to be spoiled.

But de Ridder escaped and Bigdash found himself on his back with the Dutchman firing down punches. He looked to lock in a Kimura, but gave up the position allowing the Russian to move into his guard.

Bigdash had no time whatsoever to capitalize as de Ridder immediately threw his legs up and locked in an inverted triangle. Seconds later the Russian was asleep with the referee stepping in to save him at the 3:29 mark.

With the win, de Ridder improves to 16-0, while Bigdash drops to 12-3. Afterwards the Dutchman said “Anybody in the world I’ll finish. I’ll strangle anybody on the planet. This is a move I do a lot in training and I got him.”

There was some good news for de Ridder after the fight. He was handed a $50,000 USD performance bonus. Afterwards, he demanded a shot at the heavyweight title, offering to fight regular champion Arjan Bhullar and interim champion Anatoly Malykhin on the same night.

ONE 159 results & highlights: de Ridder sleeps Bigdash

Earlier in the evening, Danial Williams (6-1) booked himself a spot in the strawweight rankings with a devastating knockout win over Zelang Zhaxi (16-7). A right hand did the damage with the experienced Chinese fighter wobbling and eventually collapsing as the Thai / Australian scored his third successive ONE Championship win.

Petr Yan vs. Sean O’Malley announced for massive UFC 280 card

ONE 159 Results

Reinier de Ridder def. Vitaly Bigdash by Submission (Inverted triangle choke) at 3:29 of R1
Muay Thai: Janet Todd def. Lara Fernandez by Decision (Unanimous)
Muay Thai: Muangthai PKSaenchai def. Vladimir Kuzmin by Decision (Split)
Kickboxing: Zhang Peimain def. Aslanbek Zikreev by Decision (Unanimous)
Muay Thai: Jamal Yusupov def. Jo Nattawut by Decision (Unanimous)
Danial Williams def. Zelang Zhaxi by KO (Punch) at 4:20 of R1
Muay Thai: Sinsamut Klinmee def. Liam Nolan by KO (Punch) at 0:05 of R2
Marat Gafurov def. Ariel Sexton by TKO (Punches) at 4:15 of R3
Valmir da Silva def. Jin Tae Ho by Submission (guillotine choke) at 4:50 of R2