This time last week Aung La Nsang and Reinier de Ridder had no idea they would be fighting one another. Both men had to make last minute adjustments ahead of ONE on TNT Part IV and it was the Dutchman who made them better, scoring a one sided decision win over the light heavyweight champion.
La Nsang had prepared for Vitaly Bigdash, a totally different type of opponent. But he found himself defending non stop takedowns and submission attempts at the Singapore Indoor Stadium and while he did a good job of fending off the latter he struggled to prevent de Ridder completing the former.
La Nsang was taken down in the first five seconds of the opening round and de Ridder took his back and sunk in a body triangle. In the first fight between the two, which had the middleweight strap on the line, the Dutchman sunk in a rear naked choke from an identical position.
La Nsang’s submission defence was on point but he still spend nearly the entire round on his back, only escaping in the dying seconds to land some kicks and punches from standing position to his prone opponent.
The second stanza followed a similar pattern with de Ridder scoring an immediate takedown and then forcing the champion to spend virtually the entire round fending off takedown attempts and submissions. The Dutchman was able to get the fight to the ground at the start of the third with a single leg too, and it took nearly four minutes for La Nsang to get back up again.
The fourth round was all de Ridder as he completed a single leg and then moved from half guard into mount before taking the back and sinking in a body triangle. Having been in an adverse position for virtually the entire fight La Nsang was left with a mountain to climb in the final round.
He was taken down immediately again but as de Ridder attempted to secure mount La Nsang powered out and reversed. He spent the remainder of the round in top position but the Dutchman was active off his back and ensured the Burmese fighter could not land any significant strikes before the final bell.
It left the judges with an easy decision as all three voted in favour of de Ridder who moves up to 14-0, claiming the light heavyweight title in the process. La Nsang fared better than in the first fight but has now lost both his titles at the hands of the Dutchman and drops to 26-12-1-0-1.
Ok Rae Yoon (15-3) and Eddie Alvarez (30-8-0-2) went to war in the co-main event. The former UFC and Bellator lightweight champion set out his stall to get the fight to the ground but was dropped with a short right hand midway through the opening round.
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The referee was about to call off the contest as Yoon continued to attack from top position but Alvarez somehow weathered the storm and got back to his feet. In the second stanza the American continued to look for the takedown but could not complete any of his attempts.
Alvarez showed more aggression in the third round, throwing some hard left hands that narrowly missed but Yoon buckled his legs with another right from close quarters. The UFC veteran needed to land something big to turn the fight around but the Korean stood his ground to claim a unanimous decision win.
One takedown was all it took for Shinya Aoki (47-9-0-1) to finish Eduard Folayang (22-11) for the second time. He moved into mount, softened the Filipino up with elbows and then finished him with an armbar at the 4:20 mark.
ONE on TNT Part IV, Singapore, April 29th Results:
- Reinier de Ridder def. Aung La N Sang via Decision (Unanimous)
- Ok Rae Yoon def. Eddie Alvarez via Decision (Unanimous)
- Kirill Grishenko defeats Oumar “Reug Reug” Kane via TKO
- Shinya Aoki def. Eduard Folayang by submission (armbar) at 4:20 of R1
- Muay Thai: Jackie Buntan def. Ekaterina Vandaryeva via Decision (Majority)
- Colbey Northcutt def. Courtney Martin via Submission (Armbar) at 2:28 of R1
Reinier de Ridder outgrapples Aung la Nsang to claim heavyweight crown at ONE on TNT Part IV
