Earlier this 12 months, Reinier de Ridder parted methods with ONE Championship. Now, the previous two-division ONE world champion is shedding some gentle on his departure and subsequent signing with the UFC.
‘The Dutch Knight’ dominated ONE’s middleweight and light-weight heavyweight divisions, incomes wins over Aung La N Sang, Kiamrian Abbasov, and Vitaly Bigdash. Alongside the best way, he captured the highest prize in each divisions and held them concurrently till struggling back-to-back losses towards Russian juggernaut Anatoly Malykhin.
Shortly after his second profession loss, de Ridder departed ONE and took a struggle underneath the UAE Warriors banner in July which he received by way of a first-round KO. Since then, he has signed with the UFC, turning into one of many promotion’s extra outstanding free-agent signings in recent times.
Not lengthy after the information broke of his imminent debut contained in the Octagon, de Ridder provided just a few particulars on why he walked away from ONE and what he hopes to perform on MMA’s largest stage.
“Yeah, I don’t suppose I can inform you guys every little thing proper now.” Reiner de Ridder informed MMA Junkie when requested about his UFC signing. “A number of stuff occurred and fortunately every little thing fell into place. We had a plan, and it labored out, mainly. I’ve had lots of good issues occur to me since I joined with ONE, lots of good alternatives, it was excellent for a very long time. It hasn’t been so good for a short while as effectively. Perhaps someday, I’ll speak somewhat bit extra about it.”
“For now, I’ll maintain my playing cards somewhat near my chest… I all the time take every little thing one step at a time, however the UFC has all the time been at the back of my thoughts. Yeah, I’m like each fighter, I’m not that particular in that regard. They will give you twice the cash someplace else, however all people desires to go to the UFC. We’re all simply dummies to be sincere! The plan was to get a struggle there at UAE, get it achieved fast, and get the ball rolling to signal with the UFC” (h/t BJPenn.com).
Reinier de Ridder eyes matchups with the middleweight division’s greatest
Reinier de Ridder will make his promotional debut on November 9 at UFC Vegas 100. On that evening, he’ll sq. off with Gerald Meerschaert in a middleweight matchup that already has followers salivating.
Ought to he bag a giant win towards ‘GM3’ inside The APEX, ‘The Dutch Knight’ already has a listing of names he’d love to check himself towards, together with three present or former world champions.
“Proper now. Let’s go,” De Ridder stated. “I’m prepared. That’s what I’m right here for. It might be so cool to lastly get a shot at these guys. They’ve been round for therefore lengthy. I’ve been round for a short while now, as effectively, so it will be very cool to lastly get an opportunity to struggle these guys… Adesanya, Dricus, Strickland, all of them. Why not?”
De Ridder went 7-2 in ONE Championship with a 71% end price. He secured 4 wins by means of submission with one other two by way of KO. Total, the BJJ black belt is 16-2 in his blended martial arts profession.
