ONE Championship dual-champion Reinier de Ridder likes his chances against UFC middleweight champ Israel Adesanya.
De Ridder (15-0), ONE’s middleweight and light heavyweight title holder, is unbeaten in his professional MMA career and is coming off a third-round submission of Kiamrian Abbasov this past February.
Training with Bellator middleweight champ Gegard Mousasi has given de Ridder a good gauge of where he stands among the elite, and he has no doubt that he’d be able to impose his grappling prowess on Adesanya (22-1 MMA, 11-1 UFC) if they fought.
“By training with him (Mousasi), I know my level,” de Ridder told MMA Junkie Radio. “I know I can hang with the best of them. If I look at like Israel Adesanya, the way he moves, his style, it’s like tailor-made for me. That guy is the easiest fight for me at middleweight around at the top. The way he moves, he’s so easy to be taken down in the open space. His wrestling defense against the wall is amazing. He gets up well, he defends all right on the floor, but I think I can choke that guy out easily.”
While he’s happy at ONE Championship, de Ridder won’t rule out a future move to another organization if a good enough offer presents itself.
“We have a small opportunity to make good money to support our families, to invest in the future, so the more competition there is, the better,” de Ridder said. “Now there’s Bellator, there’s UFC, there’s ONE, there’s PFL. All good organizations where there’s money on the table, so if I go to free agency soon then I’ll be interested in talking to everyone, but I’m very happy with what ONE is doing, with what they’re offering me, so we’ll see.”