Reinier
de Ridder appears to have no equal among the One Championship ranks.
In the
One: “Full Circle“ main event, de Ridder kept an iron grip on
his middleweight title by completely shutting down the challenger,
Kiamrian
Abbasov. De Ridder (15-0, 6-0 One) shot for a takedown right
out of the gate, and it never got better for Abbasov once his back
was on the mat. The Dutchman kept his opponent pinned on the canvas
for most of the first frame, scoring with effective
ground-and-pound. When Abbasov powered back to his feet, de Ridder
landed some nice knees to the head.
The grappling clinic continued in Round 2, as “The Dutch Knight“
took his foe to the floor with ease, overwhelming Abbasov (23-5,
4-2 One) with smothering top control and razor-sharp elbows. Right
before the end of the stanza, de Ridder latched on to an
arm-triangle choke, and Abbasov tapped a split-second after the
bell sounded. This spelled the beginning of the end for the
challenger, as de Ridder went for the same submission that he had
locked up minutes ago. This time, there was no dispute, as Abbasov
surrendered when the time read 57 seconds. In the post-fight
interview, de Ridder reiterated his ambition to move up to
heavyweight and face whoever has the belt, while pocketing a
$50,000 performance bonus.
Roman Kryklia finishes Murat Aygun with a
ferocious first-round flurry to remain the ONE Light Heavyweight
Kickboxing World Champion!
#ONEFullCircle
#WeAreONE
#ONEChampionship pic.twitter.com/uqxkX8alaM— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship)
February 25, 2022
In the co-main event, light heavyweight kickboxing kingpin Roman
Kryklia authored a superb performance versus Murat
Aygun. Kryklia made the most out of his longer reach, keeping
his opponent at his preferred distance and scoring from afar.
Kryklia also used the clinching game effectively to disrupt his
adversary’s pace every time it appeared that it was about to take
off. In the last minute of the opening stanza, Kryklia knocked down
his foe with a right hand. Aygun answered the referee’s count, even
if he was visibly on wobbly legs. Noticing that his opponent was in
dire straits, an eager Kryklia moved the referee away and finished
the job with a kick to the body and some follow-up punches. The end
came at the 2:32 mark, notching another successful title defense
and earning an important victory representing his home country of
Ukraine.
Elsewhere, former middleweight champion Vitaly
Bigdash (12-2, 5-2 One) ended the trilogy with Aung La N
Sang (27-13, 1 NC; 12-4 One) after outwrestling his opponent en
route to a unanimous decision despite missing weight by three
pounds in what should have been a One middleweight match; Tayfun
Ozcan upended Enriko Kehl on all three scorecards in their
featherweight kickboxing affair; at heavyweight, Ultimate Fighting Championship and Strikeforce veteran Guto
Inocente crushed Bruno
Susano with punches and kicks at the 2:22 mark of Round 2 of
their heavyweight kickboxing encounter; Fabricio
Andrade (7-2, 4-0 One) scored his sixth straight victory after
folding Jeremy
Pacatiw (10-5, 1-1 One) with a knee to the liver that stopped
the action 1:37 into first frame in a One bantamweight matchup.
In some preliminary card action, former One welterweight and PXC
welterweight champion Zebaztian
Kadestam (13-7, 5-4 One) snapped a three-bout skid by smashing
Valmir
da Silva Barbosa (8-2, 0-1 One) thanks to a precise boxing
combination at 1:26 of Round 1. The fight was changed to a
catchweight at 192 pounds after “The Bandit” missed weight by six
pounds. Additionally, Vladimir Kuzmin took home a unanimous
decision over Chris Shaw in
a bantamweight muay Thai clash; 17-year-old Smilla Sundell put on a
surgical performance at the expense of Diandra Martin, stopping her
foe after four knockdowns at 1:35 of the third stanza in their
128-pound muay Thai catchweight contest; Daniyal
Zainalov (8-0, 1-0 One) did enough to outpoint Yuri Simoes
(0-2, 0-2 One) with a split decision at middleweight; in some
kickboxing action, Daniel
Puertas edged Jiduo Yibu thanks to a narrow split decision at
flyweight; Drex
Zamboanga (9-5, 2-0 One) stopped Rahul K.
Raju (8-7, 3-6 One) with punches 65 seconds into their
lightweight contest.