Former ONE double champ Reinier de Ridder is now 3-0 under the UFC banner since joining the promotion last November, and enters his first main event spot in the company at UFC Abu Dhabi this Saturday.
“RDR” has been on the fast track in the company, and saw his stock skyrocket after becoming the first man to defeat Bo Nickal, the wrestling wunderkind, back in May. That landed him top billing alongside Robert Whittaker in Abu Dhabi, where he fought just prior to joining the UFC.
“It’s crazy that just a year ago, I was fighting in UAE Warriors,” de Ridder (20-2) noted during Wednesday’s UFC Abu Dhabi media day, observing that the Middle Eastern regional org was in action this week as well, “and that I’m here, I’m main event for the first time in the UFC twelve months later. So I try to take it all in, I try to enjoy as much as I can.”
“I think I’ve been doing this stuff for so long, and that’s really something that I have in the front of my mind, that I try to enjoy everything. Try to enjoy everything every training session, try to enjoy everything that I’m going through here.”
Despite training for multiple five-round fights in ONE Championship, de Ridder has only gone a full 25 minutes once. He’s not planning on trying to drag things out against Whittaker at UFC Abu Dhabi, either. “I think I just hit the gas, it’s kind of what I do. See if I can get him out of there early, or maybe get him tired, and then both of us might get tired in the last couple rounds,” he suggested.
Once again, de Ridder is the underdog heading into the fight. Perhaps not surprising given Whittaker is a former middleweight champion, but RDR has also been the underdog in his other three UFC bouts, all of which he has won. “They didn’t get it right last time, so hopefully they get it wrong this time as well,” he said, upon learning of the odds.
Reinier de Ridder was also asked about how rival Anatoly Malykhin would fare in the UFC. Russia’s Malykhin defeated RDR twice in ONE Championship, claiming both of his titles in the process. He remains under contract to the Asian promotion, however, which actually sued de Ridder when he walked away to fight in UAE Warriors after being shelved an extended period.
“I think his skill set would be very applicable, but we know that, with, I don’t know how to say this, but he cannot fight in the UFC because of other factors. So that’s a shame. I don’t think we will ever know, unfortunately. I would really like to have another shot at him one day, so hopefully that materializes, but he’s not able to fight in the UFC at the moment.”
Watch the full UAE Warriors media day appearance by Reinier de Ridder above.
