“The Dutch Knight” cleared his latest hurdle and retained his 205-pound title when he put Vitaly Bigdash to sleep with an inverted triangle choke in the first round of their One 159 headliner on July 22 at Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang, Singapore. Bigdash lost consciousness 3:29 into Round 1, suffering the first submission defeat of his 15-fight career. De Ridder, who also holds sway over the promotion’s light heavyweight division, now turns his attention elsewhere.
In the aftermath of One Championship 159, a by-the-numbers look at the show:
11: De Ridder wins by submission following his successful encounter with Bigdash in the main event. Those 11 wins account for 69% of the Dutchman’s career total (16). His methods of choice: four rear-naked chokes, two triangle chokes, two arm-triangle chokes, two armbars and one brabo choke.
1,532: Days between losses for Bigdash. The defeat to de Ridder marked the Russian’s first setback since he succumbed third-round punches from Leandro Ataides at One “Grit and Glory” on May 12, 2018.
40: Years of age for Ariel Sexton. The oldest mixed martial artist on the card, he was born in San Jose, Costa Rica, on Jan. 17, 1982. Sexton bowed to Marat Gafurov punches 4:15 into the third round of their lightweight confrontation.
.696: Cumulative winning percentage between the nine opponents—Sexton, Narantungalag Jadambaa (twice), Lowen Tynanes, Tetsuya Yamada, Emilio Urrutia, Kazunori Yokota, Martin Nguyen, Ev Ting and Rob Lisita—Gafurov has beaten since he joined the One Championship roster in 2014. They sport a combined record of 144-58-5.
5: Consecutive victories for Danial Williams after he punched out Zelang Zhaxi in the first round of their strawweight pairing. Four of those five victories have resulted in stoppages for the promising Australian, who improved to 6-1.
24: Years of age for Zhaxi. The youngest mixed martial artist on the card, he was born in Tibet on July 1, 1998.
0: Valmir da Silva Barbosa bouts involving the judges in wake of his guillotine choke submission of Tae Ho Jin. The 26-year-old Barbosa drew the curtain 4:50 into Round 2 of their welterweight affair and has now seen all 11 of his professional appearances—nine wins and two defeats—end in a finish.
1: Stoppage loss on the Jo resume. Prior to his clash with Barbosa, the Road Fighting Championship veteran’s six previous setbacks had all come by decision.