It's been a whirlwind 12 months for Reinier de Ridder, one he hopes will come full circle in Abu Dhabi this Saturday when he meets former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker in the main event at UFC Fight Night.
The 34-year-old Dutchman is one of the rising stars in UFC, recording wins over Gerald Meerschaert, Kevin Holland and Bo Nickal, all without going the distance, since being handed a contract with the world's lead mixed martial arts promotion last July.
De Ridder gained that contract shortly after appearing at UAE Warriors 51, where he stopped Russian Magomedmurad Khasae with a first-round TKO. It followed a highly publicised falling out with One Championship, an organisation where he was a double world champion, leading to a period of inactivity.
“I was in a bad situation at the One Championship. My career was pretty much on the slump. I couldn’t get a fight for over a year in 2023 since my first defeat,” De Ridder told The National during his visit to Palms Sports headquarters in Abu Dhabi.
“I was pushed aside and wasn’t allowed to appear in fights in different promotions. They were trying to block me from getting fights anywhere.”
The fallout began following his first career defeat to Russian Anatoly Malykhin in a middleweight title fight in December 2022.
He faced the same opponent and suffered the same fate in a light heavyweight contest in March last year, losing both his One Championship titles.
Though he doesn't go into detail, De Ridder credits the intervention of Ali Abdelaziz, manager of UFC Hall of Famer Khabib Nurmagomedov, and Fouad Darwish, CEO of Palms Sports, the management company of the UAE Warriors, for helping him to settle his legal dispute with One Championship, clearing him to fight for rival promotions.
“Thanks to Fouad, thanks to Ali, I was able to get the fight [in UAE Warriors] and despite all the stress of dealing with lawyers, I was able to finish the guy in the first round,” De Ridder said.
“I was lucky there and that led to me signing a contract with UFC a couple of months later."
De Ridder, who has 20 career wins against those two losses to Malykhin, will now get the chance to strengthen his credentials for a shot at middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis when he takes on Australian Whittaker at the Etihad Arena.
“It has been a crazy year. Now I’m fighting for the fifth time in 12 months. I’m lucky because I came out of these fights without being tested and without any serious injuries.
“Against Whittaker, it’s a big night for me. He’s a former champion in the promotion and he’s experienced and travelled the world. But I have been training like mad and prepared to take him on.”
Since his move to the UFC, De Ridder has trained at the Kill Cliff Fight Club in Florida.
“It's just been great camp after great camp for me, preparing for the UFC fights. It's been very big amount of work being put in. It's been a big toll on my body and whatever, but I'm feeling great.
“I'm stronger than ever. I feel very sharp and I feel that it's not just this last camp that I've done, but it's all the work I've done before.
“It's a combination of 15 years of training MMA, 15 years of judo and jiu-jitsu training before. So my entire life on the mat is leading to another big fight here.”
De Ridder has left no stone unturned in his preparation for Whittaker, who has shared a stage with the likes of Yoel Romero, Israel Adesanya and Khamzat Chimaev.
“I trained with a lot of guys who have been able to mimic Whittaker because he has a very peculiar style with the karate stance and blitzing. I've been able to prepare very well for it, I believe. So yeah, the camp is, we're kind of finishing up the last week and a half here [in Abu Dhabi].
“We're not doing too much crazy stuff anymore. We're not going too hard or too deep, but still training, still putting a lot of work into training. I think I'm ready to go next week.”
De Ridder's affinity with Abu Dhabi runs deep. It was in the UAE capital the Dutchman, a blackbelt in both judo and jiu-jitsu, collected his first pay cheque, winning gold in blue belt at the Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship in 2014.
“Abu Dhabi will always be very special to me because it’s where I first earned a pay cheque from the sport,” he said.
“I was 21 and was a blue belt in jiu-jitsu. I was just getting into the sport a little bit and didn’t have the money to travel. Then I came to know there was a qualifier in London from which the winner will earn an all-expenses paid entry for the World Pro in Abu Dhabi. I won and qualified. I won gold and they handed me an envelope with cash. That was thrilling and it was the first time I got paid in the sport.”
Abu Dhabi also provided him the opportunity to fight outside the One Championship that eventually paved the way for him to compete in the UFC.
“Looking back a year ago, my career was in a slump and I was thinking this might be it for my MMA career. But these guys really helped me to turn it all around, and I’m forever grateful to Ali and Fouad.
“For me, it’s very important to just be in the moment and take whatever life gives me. If you have the chance, grab it and go for it with 100 per cent of your energy and effort.
“I think everything will come together very nicely and hopefully I can keep the ball rolling.
“It's crazy how life can come together at a moment like that. If I would have cracked under the pressure of the lawyers and whatever, or if one of the people here didn't give me this break, I would have had a very different last year.
“So it's crazy how these small important moments in your life can change so much.”
