Suffering his first career defeat wasn’t easy for Reinier “The Dutch Knight” de Ridder to accept, but the former two-division king is fired up to come back stronger than ever. The ONE Middleweight World Champion begins his quest to make things right when he takes on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu phenom Tye Ruotolo in a submission grappling match at ONE Fight Night 10: Johnson vs. Moraes III on Prime Video in Broomfield, Colorado, on Friday, May 5.

But beyond the highly anticipated super-fight at ONE’s historic first show in the United States, “The Dutch Knight” wants to get back into MMA and put his only career defeat to bed.

Reinier De Ridder won’t be bowed down by his loss against Anatoly Malykhin

The Combat Brothers representative said, “[Getting back to winning ways] is the most important thing. I got redemption on my mind. I’m fully focused on setting things straight. This is my year, man. I’m setting everything straight. I’m starting with a grappling match. And some MMA fights to cap it off.”

De Ridder slumped to a devastating defeat at the hands of Anatoly “Sladkiy” Malykhin in the main event of ONE on Prime Video 5 last December. He went down to the interim heavyweight king in the opening stanza and lost the ONE Light Heavyweight World Title in the process.

READ MORE – ONE Championship: Two-Division King Anatoly Malykhin Named ONE’s MMA Athlete Of The Year 

The knockout loss was a bitter pill to swallow, but “The Dutch Knight” views it as a usual bump on the road to greatness.

Reinier De Ridder wanted to forget his defeat with a victory against Tye Ruotolo

He is still the middleweight king, after all. And with a 16-1 record, he remains one of the top men to beat in both the 205-pound and 225-pound divisions. The 32-year-old mused, “S*** happens, man. I’ve never lost a fight before. I’ve never really been hurt in training. It was tough, but I was always prepared for this. I know that if you stick around long enough, if you look for the largest challenges – which I do – s*** happens.”

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MMA may be on his mind. But before he makes moves in the all-encompassing sport, De Ridder has his mind locked on causing a huge upset in ONE’s submission grappling ranks when he takes on Ruotolo at ONE Fight Night 10: Johnson vs. Moraes III on Prime Video.

Tune in to see if he can do that when ONE arrives in North America on Friday, May 5.