Reinier de Ridder had a few suitors to step in for his injured opponent at UFC Vancouver, but ended up settling on Brendan Allen after another big name in the UFC middleweight division talked his way out of the fight.
De Ridder (21-2) was originally slated to face Anthony “Fluffy” Hernandez in the main event, but an injury forced Hernandez out. Paulo Costa was briefly considered as a replacement, but after a series of demands from his camp, de Ridder’s team opted to move on and accepted Allen instead.
“It was close. If he had said yes then we would be fighting now,” de Ridder told reporters including Cageside Press on Wednesday.
“He came back with (wanting it) to be three rounds, wanted it to be a catchweight, I said ok we’ll move on. I imagined him to be jumping at the bit to fight me, but no. We kind of basically just went down the list from whoever was available and came off a win. The first one to say yes was Brendan so I was very happy that he did.”
Allen is no stranger to de Ridder. Beyond a brief stint training together, Allen has been a middleweight de Ridder has kept his eye on for some time.
“A lot of experience. I’ve seen all of his fights of course, and I know a lot about him. I don’t really know him as a person. We’ve never really trained together,” he said.
His opponent trains full-time at Kill Cliff, which could have made finding suitable training partners tricky for de Ridder. In the end, though, it doesn’t seem to have been much of an issue.
“I think everybody’s professional. Everybody wanted to work with me, no issues, only Henry (Hooft) stayed neutral and didn’t want to come and coach me this time. The rest was all good,” he said.
The former two-division ONE champion has won four straight fights in the UFC, including a victory over former titleholder Robert Whittaker. De Ridder now believes he’s earned his shot at reigning middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev.
De Ridder has already shared training time with Chimaev in the past, giving him a firsthand look at the champion’s skill set. Reflecting on those sessions, he spoke with respect, but also confidence, about how their styles could produce a thrilling matchup.
“(Would) be a very cool fight. I imagine very spectacular grappling exchanges. His striking, we haven’t seen it a lot in UFC, but his striking is pretty cool too. Decent boxing, he’s been working with a boxing coach for a very long time, Olympic boxer. The times we trained I thought his boxing was very crisp as well,” he said.
“I think I have a lot to offer in that fight in the grappling and in the striking. Hope we see it soon.”
The consensus is that this fight could determine whether de Ridder earns the next title shot against Chimaev. It’s a compelling situation, with fellow contender Nassourdine Imavov also making a strong case for the opportunity. No official announcement has been made yet.
“Yeah Imavov’s not getting the shot so, that’s why I didn’t ask,” de Ridder said.
Watch the entire media day scrum with Reinier de Ridder above. He headlines UFC Vancouver against Brendan Allen on Saturday night.
