It helped that he was fighting warm bodies and rusty tomato cans, but the promotion saw enough from the NCAA Division-1 National Wrestling Champion to put him on the middleweight fast track.
“He was moving a bit too fast,” coach Mike Brown told MMA Fighting. “We all knew it. He knew it. I knew it. We all knew it. Management knew it. But he was also was getting paid very well. You’re not going to get the big bucks if you’re fighting guys on the prelims. If you’re getting bigger paychecks, then they’re going to push you and not give you layups. Experience is so much in this sport. Experience is everything.”
“It’s not a fight I necessarily wanted 100 percent,” Brown said about de Ridder. “There are other guys I would have rather had. De Ridder just showed that he’s better than a lot of people in that division. He’s capable of big things. He’s got more experience than Bo and it showed. That’s the fight game. In this game, everybody loses or 99.9 percent of every great UFC fighter loses.”