Reinier de Ridder Got Kevin Holland Fight Right After UFC Debut

Los Angeles – UFC middleweight Reinier de Ridder went from an APEX card to a big fight at UFC 311 against Kevin Holland on Saturday night.

“I got home after the fight last time. That week the fight already got planned,” de Ridder told reporters including Cageside Press on Wednesday.

“Then next week I flew out to Florida and I’ve been there for six weeks. I’ve been here for about a week now.”

De Ridder (18-2) barely got home before the UFC came calling. The name they had for de Ridder was plenty to get him excited about.

“They had a different name first which was a nice one too, but that didn’t happen all the way. Kevin was the second one they mentioned,” he said.

“He’s very experienced. He’s been around for a long while. He’s long, rangy and his main thing is his right hand. He’s very strong, very precise right hand, and he has a lot of smoke around it.”

A matchup with Holland means more than just trying to punch him in the face. He tends to talk to his opponents and pretty much anybody within earshot when the action stalls a bit.

“I don’t really know. We’ve tried a little bit (to simulate that) well my coach is talking to me, but it just gets ridiculous. I’m not really prepared for this. We’ll see how I deal with it in the cage,” de Ridder said with a laugh.

The Dutch fighter has finally arrived on the big stage of the UFC following a stint with ONE Championship. It’s brought more fame to him than he’s had before, but he rolls with it pretty easily.

“In Florida when I was walking through the mall people came up to me and stuff. I’m not really on the social media, I don’t really look anything, I don’t know too much about this,” he said.

Outside of fans it may be his own inner circle of friends and family who rag on him for being famous now.

“It’s not really a Dutch thing to talk about fame and stuff. We just shoot people down,” de Ridder told Cageside Press while fighting back a grin.

“We just act like assholes when somebody achieve something.”

Watch the entire media day scrum with Reinier de Ridder above. He takes on Kevin Holland at UFC 311 on Saturday night.