{"id":82527,"date":"2025-08-20T01:35:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T01:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/82527\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T01:35:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T01:35:08","slug":"de-ridder-gets-hernandez-next-in-oct-18-ufc-headliner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/82527\/","title":{"rendered":"De Ridder gets Hernandez next in Oct. 18 UFC headliner"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Brett OkamotoAug 20, 2025, 01:17 AM<\/p>\n

Close<\/a>Brett Okamoto has reported on mixed martial arts and boxing at ESPN since 2010. He has covered all of the biggest events in combat sports during that time, including in-depth interviews and features with names such as Dana White, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Conor McGregor, Nate Diaz, Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao and Georges St-Pierre. He was also a producer on the 30 for 30 film: “Chuck and Tito,” which looked back at the careers and rivalry of Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz. He lives in Las Vegas, and is an avid, below-average golfer in his spare time.<\/p>\n

The UFC’s middleweight division will continue to take shape on Oct. 18, when Reinier de Ridder<\/a> and Anthony Hernandez<\/a> headline UFC Fight Night in Vancouver.<\/p>\n

UFC CEO Dana White announced the matchup on Tuesday, just three days after Khamzat Chimaev<\/a> claimed the middleweight belt over Dricus Du Plessis<\/a> at UFC 319 in Chicago.<\/p>\n

De Ridder (21-2), of the Netherlands, has already had a spectacular 2025. He is 3-0 this year, defeating fan favorite Kevin Holland<\/a>, super prospect Bo Nickal<\/a> and former champion Robert Whittaker<\/a>. Going back to July 2024, de Ridder, 34, is 5-0 with four finishes.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

1 Related<\/p>\n

Hernandez (15-2) has been equally as impressive, with an eight-fight winning streak. Hernandez, nicknamed “Fluffy,” is coming off a performance bonus-worthy showing against Roman Dolidze<\/a> on Aug. 9.<\/p>\n

De Ridder and Hernandez are the Nos. 5 and 6-ranked middleweights, respectively. The middleweight division will be on full display in the coming months, as No. 2-ranked Nassourdine Imavov<\/a> will face No. 7-ranked Caio Borralho<\/a> on Sept. 6.<\/p>\n

In addition to the main event, White announced a bantamweight fight between Marlon Vera<\/a> and Aiemann Zahabi<\/a>, a middleweight matchup between Holland and Mike Mallott and a women’s flyweight bout between Manon Fiorot<\/a> and Jasmine Jasudavicius<\/a> for the Vancouver event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brett OkamotoAug 20, 2025, 01:17 AM CloseBrett Okamoto has reported on mixed martial arts and boxing at ESPN…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82],"class_list":["post-82527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}