ONE Championship results and video: Aung La Nsang dethroned by Reinier de Ridder

ONE Championship: Inside the Matrix took place yesterday at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, which was empty due to the ongoing COVID-10 pandemic. The six-fight card boasted four title fights and included a couple of the promotion’s most popular faces.

In the main event the ‘Burmese Python’ Aung La Nsang sought to defend his ONE light heavyweight championship versus the undefeated Dutchman Reinier de Ridder.

La Nsang came into this one as both the ONE light heavyweight and middleweight champion, but he would leave it with just one of those titles in tact. It was the relatively unheralded de Ridder who came out on top after stunning the champion with a first round submission.

The bout started with Aung La threatening with an uppercut and thudding leg kick. De Ridder responded by shooting for a takedown, which the champ stuffed in the center of the cage. But the European was dogged in holding on, twisting and then throwing his opponent to the mat. De Ridder immediately took back control. Against the cage, both men hand fought as de Ridder looked for an opening for the throwing his opponent to the mat. De Ridder immeminutes took back control. Against the cage, both men hand fought as de Ridder looked for an opening for the choke. Aung La defended smartly for a couple of minutes and, at one point, looked close to powering out of the position. But de Ridder was able to ride out the escape attempts and may have even used on to his advantage.

With two minutes remaining, de Ridder seemed to give Aung La room to stand-up. As Aung La muscled up onto his feet, de Ridder craftily hopped onto his back and was able to lock in a much better position, with one arm around Aung La’s chin. The two men slumped to the ground and seconds later de Ridder was able to slide his arm under the chin and flush against the throat, forcing a tap.

This was the first time Aung La had lost since 2017, when he challenged Vitaly Bigdash for the ONE middleweight title. He beat Bigdash in an immediate rematch and took wins over Alain Ngalani, Ken Hasegawa and Brandon Vera.

De Ridder was making only his fourth appearance with ONE, his debut was a d’arce choke win over Rong Fan last January.

De Ridder’s win over Aung La wasn’t the only shock of the night. Earlier on American Thanh Le TKO’d Australia’s Martin Nguyen in a wild brawl to claim the ONE lightweight championship.

The other title fights on the card saw Christian Lee defend his welterweight belt versus Iuri Lapicus and Jingnan Xiong defend her flyweight title versus Tiffany Teo.

The entire event is available on YouTube:

Full results below:

Light heavyweight championship: Reinier de Ridder def. Aung La N Sang via submission (rear-naked choke), round 1 (3:26).

Welterweight championship: Christian Lee def. Iuri Lapicus via TKO (punches), round 1 (2:19).

Lightweight championship: Thanh Le def. Martin Nguyen via KO, round 3 (2:19).

Flyweight championship: Xiong Jingnan def. Tiffany Teo via unanimous decision.

Welterweight: Tony Caruso def. Eduard Folayang via unanimous decision.

Strawweight: Ritu Phogat def. Nou Srey Pov via TKO (punches), round 2 (2:02).