Every time Reinier de Ridder thinks he\u2019s about to get some time off, the UFC comes calling with another offer and he inevitably says yes.<\/p>\n
The latest example came after de Ridder dispatched former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker to extend his win streak to 4-0 in the octagon and he barely had time to get home before he received an offer to face Anthony \u201cFluffy\u201d Hernandez in a potential No. 1 contender\u2019s bout at UFC Vancouver. While he was expecting a little break, de Ridder admits he didn\u2019t blink when the UFC reached out to him because he knew one more win over somebody like Hernandez was the perfect exclamation point to get him a title shot.<\/p>\n
Sadly, those plans changed just a couple of weeks later.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey called me and said why don\u2019t we do the \u2018Fluffy\u2019 fight? I said why not,\u201d de Ridder told MMA Fighting. \u201cSo I got back to work. I put a lot of work in that first couple of weeks because of the cardio thing. I really wanted to get that part right because it was \u2018Fluffy.\u2019 I went to work like crazy early on. Then a couple of weeks in, they called me and told me he was out. Asked me if I wanted to remain on the card and I wanted to. I think it\u2019s smart timeline wise to fight now to line myself up for the next \u2018Don\u2019t be a b*tch, just say yes\u2019: Reinier de Ridder slams Paulo Costa over fight stipulations shot. They were happy for me to stay on the card.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a bit of a struggle to find somebody so for a couple of days, I thought maybe there would not be any fight. I was a bit disappointed in that but eventually Brendan [Allen] was the guy to step up, take the fight so I\u2019m very happy about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now de Ridder is scheduled to face Brendan Allen in the five-round main event from Canada but he wasn\u2019t actually the UFC\u2019s first choice.<\/p>\n
Initially, the promotion reached out to former title challenger Paulo Costa to fill the spot vacated by Hernandez after he recently picked up a win over Roman Kopylov at UFC 318. While not the top-ranked contender he once was, Costa is still a name that draws eyeballs whenever he competes and his addition to the main event seemed to be a great idea.<\/p>\n
In the end, de Ridder revealed that Costa just wanted too many concessions to actually consider taking the fight, which admittedly didn\u2019t sit too well with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cCosta would have been fun just because it\u2019s a fun dude,\u201d de Ridder said. \u201cThe entire buildup would have been cool. So he was up first, we were in conversation with him first but he put up too many stipulations.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wanted a catchweight. He wanted three rounds instead of five. So we said if you don\u2019t want it then you don\u2019t get it. Then we moved onto Brendan, which I\u2019m very happy with as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Based on the UFC\u2019s own standings, Allen is currently the No. 9 ranked middleweight while Costa is sitting behind him at No. 13. On paper that makes Allen the better choice but de Ridder knows Costa carries name value, which sometimes means more than a ranking.<\/p>\n
Obviously, de Ridder accepted Costa with no strings attached but the Brazilian couldn\u2019t say the same thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say if you get an opportunity like that, don\u2019t be a bitch. Just say yes,\u201d de Ridder said about Costa. \u201cDon\u2019t put any stipulations there and he would have had a great chance to be back into title conversation.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut he put all those stipulations there and we said we\u2019ll move on and see if there\u2019s somebody else who just wants to take the fight. I think maybe even if we said no, Paulo, it has to be middleweight and five rounds, maybe he would have still have taken it but it was already too late unfortunately. Maybe one day. It would be fun to get all the buildup with him someday.\u201d<\/p>\n
When it comes to Allen as an opponent, de Ridder has some familiarity because they both trained under the same roof at Kill Cliff FC. After joining the UFC roster from ONE Championship, de Ridder sought out the Florida based gym to give him some new looks and he loved it there so much that he eventually relocated his entire family to the area.<\/p>\n
While they were working with a lot of the same coaches and teammates, de Ridder says he never actually got the chance to work with Allen because his upcoming opponent just had no interest in it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first few times I came in, he was there,\u201d de Ridder explained. \u201cI don\u2019t give a f*ck. I just went up to him and said hi and what\u2019s up and let\u2019s train but he didn\u2019t want to train. I respect that as well. It is what it is. We\u2019ll find out now.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t care too much about training. I\u2019ll train with anybody. It\u2019s not like you\u2019re going to find out something that you\u2019re going to use against me in the fight, in my mind. It is what it is. He didn\u2019t want to train so it didn\u2019t happen and now we\u2019re going to find out in the cage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stylistically, de Ridder didn\u2019t have to change too much going from Hernandez to Allen, although based on past performances most are expecting this upcoming fight to pit two top grapplers against each other.<\/p>\n
For his part, de Ridder doesn\u2019t discount that possibility, although he definitely sees a stark contrast between his ground game and what Allen brings to the table.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis grappling is good but a bit sloppy at times,\u201d de Ridder said. \u201cHe falls off the back very frequently so maybe that\u2019s something he\u2019s adjusted by now. Has decent submissions, very opportunistic. He jumps on stuff when he sees it. His wrestling is decent. He has decent takedowns, decent takedown defense, not too great.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think the thing that he lacks in the most, he kind of fades in the later rounds. He starts very hard, very sharp and very good in the first round, he\u2019s very dangerous as he did against [Nassourdine] Imavov. He got on top and controlled him basically the entire round, as he did in the \u2018Fluffy\u2019 fight, he did very well in the first round as well. But then in the later rounds, he kind of fades a little bit. He doesn\u2019t even look that tired but something changes and he\u2019s not the same guy in the later rounds. So we\u2019ll see for this one.\u201d<\/p>\n
On paper the stakes have changed slightly but de Ridder believes the result should still stay the same where an emphatic win \u2014 most notably a finish \u2014 should put him in position to battle for a UFC title next.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the goal,\u201d de Ridder said about putting Allen away. \u201cIf I can do that, I think it\u2019s very clear who the top contender is.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every time Reinier de Ridder thinks he\u2019s about to get some time off, the UFC comes calling with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396,14855],"class_list":{"0":"post-212991","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc","15":"tag-ufc-news","16":"tag-videos"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}