Reinier de Ridder had a lot of reasons he wanted to sign with the UFC after leaving ONE Championship but staying busy might sit near the top of his list.
After he was shelved for all of 2023 with only one fight booked in 2024, the former two-division champion was happy to leave the Singapore based promotion so he could begin working towards a much more active schedule with his new fighting home. He didn’t have to wait long after inking his deal with his first fight booked on Saturday against fellow grappler Gerald Meerschaert in a featured bout at UFC Vegas 100.
Obviously, de Ridder was very happy to know the UFC plans to keep him busy and now it’s his job to show the promotion he was worth the investment.
“That’s one of the major plusses [signing with UFC],” de Ridder told MMA Fighting. “I even started calling out heavyweights [in ONE Championship] because there were no fights. I’m not making that mistake again. Hopefully, I’m going to make it a beautiful year.
“It’s crazy. For some reason, the stars seem to be aligning. Now I just need to knock it out of the park.”
While his only real focus remains on Meerschaert this Saturday, de Ridder addressed the rest of the middleweight division with hopes to jump in the deep end of the division sooner rather than later.
Even as an observer from outside the promotion, de Ridder always kept a watchful eye on the UFC and he knows there are plenty of potential matchups awaiting him.
“Hopefully after this, I’m looking to make a statement in this fight, announce my joining the UFC with a nice performance and then hopefully I’ll get a crack at some top level guys,” de Ridder said. “There’s so many good guys.
“Like [Sean] Strickland, like [Israel] Adesanya, Dricus [du Plessis], we have some history. I fought in the same organization he did. Didn’t get a chance to fight him at that point so hopefully it’s going to be on the biggest stage this time. But even like the entire top 10 are full of killers. There’s a lot of guys that have seen some inactivity. Line them up.”
There are a couple of names in particular in the UFC that have drawn de Ridder’s interest just because it’s a chance to test his grappling against other top notch ground specialists.
In fact, de Ridder definitely plans on watching UFC 309, which takes place one week after his debut, when multi-time NCAA champion wrestler Bo Nickal makes his fourth appearance for the promotion after going 3-0 with three finishes to start his career.
Nickal is slated to face Paul Craig in a featured bout on the pay-per-view main card and while de Ridder certainly doesn’t have any ill will towards the veteran Scotsman, he can’t help but throw out a suggestion that he’d be ready to step in on short notice if the opportunity was presented to him.
“Khamzat [Chimaev] and Bo Nickal would both be amazing,” de Ridder said. “[Bo Nickal] might be a nice next step. So maybe we do something to Paul Craig, distract him a little bit and jump in?
“That’s a fun one, right? I’m down for that. So Paul Craig, take a hike.”
All jokes aside, de Ridder believes those kinds of options are now available to him in the UFC but first things first he has to get through Meerschaert on Saturday.
When that was the offer made for his debut, de Ridder didn’t hesitate to say yes even though it actually interrupted the plans he made for his training camp to get ready for his first fight in the UFC.
“I was pretty familiar [with Gerald] because I’ve been training with him for a little bit,” de Ridder revealed. “I know what he brings to the table.
“I was planning to spend my camp in Miami with Henri [Hooft] and the guys [at Kill Cliff FC] but then when I got the name, I had to send Henri a text that he might be the wrong corner again.”
On paper this might be a grappler’s dream match between two prolific submission specialists, although many times those kinds of fights end up turning into striking affairs.
De Ridder is ready for whatever gets thrown at him but he promises at some point he’s going to test his grappling skills against Meerschaert.
“I need to [take this fight down to the canvas],” de Ridder explained. “I need to represent jiu-jitsu so I’m going to try and hit him with some good shots but it’s going to go to the ground, 100 percent.”
