ONE Championship: Reinier de Ridder submits Aung La N Sang with first-round choke to win middleweight title
- N Sang taps to rear-naked choke in Inside The Matrix main event as undefeated ‘Dutch Knight’ shocks ‘The Burmese Python’
- ‘He defended well, he was prepared but there’s no squeeze like mine, I’ll squeeze your head off if I want to,’ says new champ
Reinier de Ridder said he was going to choke out Aung La N Sang in 10 seconds. It wasn’t quite that brief, but the undefeated “Dutch Knight” submitted “The Burmese Python” with a first-round rear-naked choke to walk away with the ONE Championship middleweight title on a night of shocks at Inside The Matrix in Singapore.
N Sang (26-11) had seemingly been annoyed by De Ridder’s (13-0) confidence heading into the fight at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. But the 35-year-old was powerless to stop the Dutchman’s first takedown attempt, and eventually succumbed to the choke after fighting it for three minutes, tapping out against the fence.
“I said second round, so I missed a little bit,” De Ridder said in his post-fight interview in the ONE Circle. “He defended well, he was prepared but there’s no squeeze like mine, I’ll squeeze your head off if I want to.”
“This is everything to me, I‘ve been working to this since I was five years old working on the mat. I have so many people in my life that I need to thank.
“This is a culmination of a lifelong martial arts fighter. What an honour for me to take it to Aung.”
