Pieter “The Archangel” Buist, 31, of Breda, North Brabant, Netherlands is one of the best mixed martial artists in ONE Championship today particularly in its lightweight division. In eight months, he won all of his first three MMA bouts in the promotion in lightweight division.

With three consecutive wins in ONE Championship, Buist is eager to fight for the ONE Lightweight World Championship belt, which is currently held by Christian “The Warrior” Lee, 21, of Singapore. Here is a short interview I recently had with the Ghanaian-Dutch MMA fighter training out of Combat Brothers in Breda:

Conan Altatis: Aside from yourself and the reigning champion, who do you think is the most dangerous fighter in ONE Championship’s lightweight division now?

Pieter Buist: The lightweight division is the most dangerous division of them all so everyone is dangerous but Shinya Aoki is always dangerous. Saygid Guseyn Arslanaliev and Timofey Nastyukhin are no joke, too.

CA: Who is your MMA hero?

PB: My greatest hero first of all is my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But I always looked up to Genki Sudo. He was and still is so awesome!

CA: Why is it important for you to win the ONE Lightweight World Championship belt?

PB: I’m here in ONE to show me and the world that I’m the best in the world so next to beating everyone in my division, I think the belt shows everyone who’s the king of the world and I know that I’m that so I will claim that lightweight MMA belt this year! I am the most dangerous there is!

As an MMA fighter, Buist has been competing professionally since 2012. He was born in Holland, Netherlands on March 1, 1988 to a Ghanaian father and a Dutch mother.

I became an instant fan of Buist since his successful promotional debut at “ONE: Warriors of Light” on May 10, 2019 at the Impact Arena in Bangkok, Thailand. In the third bout of the evening, the Ghanaian-Dutch MMA fighter knocked out Kota “Harato” Shimoishi, 32, of Japan via knees in their lightweight MMA bout.

When Buist faced Antonio “The Spartan” Caruso, 29, of Australia at “ONE: Dawn of Valor,” I expected the Combat Brothers representative to finish his Australian opponent, who was then undefeated. The Breda native neither knocked out nor submitted his opponent but he won via unanimous decision.

On January 31, 2020, two-time former ONE Lightweight World Champion Eduard “Landslide” Folayang, 35, of the Philippines was supposed to face Ahmed “The Wolverine” Mujtaba, 27, of Pakistan at “ONE: Fire and Fury” at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City, Metro Manila, Philippines but the latter was pulled out from the card. Two weeks before fight night, Buist accepted the offer to replace the Pakistani contender.

As a Filipino, I did root for Folayang and will always root for him in his future fights. Wanting a fighter to win and expecting him or her to win are two different thing though.

When I learned that Folayang’s “ONE: Fire and Fury” opponent would be Buist, I did predict that the one who replaced Mujtaba would steal the hometown hero’s thunder. Indeed, the Filipino fighter lost although via split decision.