Reinier de Ridder isn't blaming anybody but himself for shortcomings in his past two losses.
After a blazing fast start to his UFC career with four straight wins including victories over former champion Robert Whittaker and Bo Nickal, de Ridder kept the momentum going by booking his fourth fight in 2025, but that backfired spectacularly. He ended up falling to Brendan Allen after his body effectively shut down and his corner was forced to stop the fight.
While not the same outcome, de Ridder also felt fairly lifeless in his next fight when he lost to Caio Borralho before finally making the decision to move from middleweight to light heavyweight. His 205-pound debut is booked for Saturday against Roman Dolidze at UFC Sacramento.
The Toll of Extreme Weight Cutting
"The last couple of fights, every time I was doing a weight cut, I said this has to be the last one," de Ridder told MMA Fighting. "Because it was just rough every time and not only the weight cut, not just during fight week but also in training camp, it was so hard to recover between sessions. Because I had to limit my calories so extremely. It just took so much out of me. It's time to move up."
"I think a weight cut like that, an extreme weight cut, like all the top guys at middleweight do is all right to do it like twice a year, max. If you fight once or twice a year you'll be all right. I did like six in a little over a year and it just fucks everything up. It fucks your body up. It fucks your hormone levels up. Everything goes to shit."
The Weight Cut Problem
"It's time to figure this weight cut stuff out anyways. Everybody makes 185. Everybody's at least 210 when they fight, maybe 215. What the fuck are we doing?" de Ridder said.
He acknowledges that the system forces fighters to cut weight because otherwise they would be fighting someone 25 pounds heavier.
Never Going Back
Now that he is officially a light heavyweight, de Ridder completely shuts the door on ever going back to 185, emphatically stating, "I'll say never. Never a middleweight again."
"There's a lot of cool matchups," de Ridder said. "If I do well and I can put him away, I think I have a chance of fighting one of the top 10 guys. There's a lot of opportunities at 205 so let's get to it."
