UFC contender Reinier de Ridder couldn't be happier to have escaped the shackles of his old promotion.
Very rarely does a player in a team sport spend their entire career in one spot, going to work every day alongside the same set of teammates. Whether from contract disputes, trades, off-field problems, or any number of issues, it's just not very common. The same parallel can be applied in MMA, both with gym changes and organizational transitions — they're just part of the fight game.
Former two-division ONE Championship titleholder Reinier de Ridder arguably may already be the most successful fighter to go from ONE to the UFC. The Dutchman has won his first three fights in the Octagon since his November debut, all by finish, including a massive upset of Bo Nickal. Now he's set for his biggest test yet this Saturday in the main event of UFC Abu Dhabi, where he takes on former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker.
Yet the path to get to this point didn't unfold as quickly as De Ridder would've liked.
De Ridder, 34, entered ONE as a 9-0 prospect in 2019 before quickly rising through the ranks and capturing the promotion's 205-pound title with an epic upset in 2020 of Aung La N Sang. The jiu-jitsu ace then toppled the Myanmar fan-favorite again for the 225-pound title in their rematch, accumulated two title defenses — and then got stuck in contractual limbo. De Ridder was sidelined for all of 2023 and eventually forced his way out of ONE last year after losing back-to-back fights against Anatoly Malykhin.
Coincidentally, UFC Abu Dhabi also hosts the Octagon debut of de Ridder's former ONE stablemate, jiu-jitsu legend Marcus "Buchecha" Almeida, who's echoed similarly frustrating experiences about his time with ONE. Buchecha has gone as far as calling de Ridder an inspiration for any ONE fighter currently stuck in their old stomping grounds, trying to continue their career.
"He's my guy, so I know exactly what he's been going through," de Ridder told Uncrowned. "We train together regularly. The guy is so f***ing good and such a good guy. Good person as well. And I'm very happy that he's finally in the UFC and that he very finally has an option to be active and to go as far as he can go. I think he will really be able to go to the top of the division, so I'm very excited that he's on this card, I'm very happy to see him in the UFC. So it's very cool."
ONE's focus has made a clear shift away from MMA in recent years, instead hosting events that primarily consist of Muay Thai and kickboxing. Formerly based in Singapore, the promotion relocated its base of operations to the Cayman Islands and holds nearly every event at Bangkok's Lumpinee Boxing Stadium.
ONE CEO Chatri Sityodtong reecently took to social media to address the company's decade-long struggle to become profitable — among other setbacks — despite promises that it'd reach that milestone by now. While de Ridder doesn't know exactly why ONE has made it difficult for fighters to leave or why its contracts are so restrictive, he believes there may be an element of maintaining a mirage.
"That's the question. I don't understand. I just don't understand," de Ridder said. "Obviously, they're not doing well. Obviously money's running out and whatever, but they're just making the wrong decisions. Why would you want to f*** up somebody's career? I just don't understand. Our time is so short. We only have a couple of years in our prime, and they're just trying to ruin people's careers. It's just that plain and simple. It's coming out more and more. Everybody sees what's going on. It's just, why? I don't know.
"I've had a lot of messages [from fighters] over the last year, and I've given out a lot of advice, but what I did, I was at a point where I knew I was not going to get a fight anymore [with ONE Championship], and I knew they were going to park me again for an extended period of time. I just said f*** it. If this is going to cost me everything that I own, then at least it's not worse than costing me the rest of my career.
"So I just said f*** it — I'm going to fight somewhere else and we'll see what happens. And I've been very, very fortunate with the people around me supporting me in that decision, with my manager Ali Abdelaziz taking a big risk. With Abu Dhabi here, Palm Sports and UAE Warriors — they were sued just as I was sued for fighting here [in UAE Warriors in July 2024]. And they also took a big risk in having me compete. But it just got to a point where I thought, 'I'm not going to throw my career away. I need to do this. I need to give myself another chance at fighting.' And it kind of paid off in the last year."
De Ridder bet on himself and the gamble has paid off tenfold thus far. In the UFC, "RDR" has become a low-key Fighter of the Year candidate, with the potential to become a front-runner if he gets past Whittaker and then rattles off another big win before the end of 2025 for a 4-0 campaign.
He's been making up for the time he lost in ONE, and de Ridder appears to be getting more well-rounded and dangerous everywhere. His stoppage of Nickal this past May opened the eyes of many still questioning him. "RDR" isn't surprised, though. He's just reinvigorated by the new opportunities.
"I've been working on that for like over 10 years," de Ridder said of his strong striking performance against Nickal. "I knew, and I'm always happy to keep it a secret as well. But it had to come out. It had to come out one day, and it happened in the Bo fight, which seems like a week and a half ago in my mind. It's like these training camps fly by for some reason.
"Just to work at [my gym] Kill Cliff, it's so cool to just have to show up and there's endless good people to work with. Endless good coaches to work with. That's really been a blessing."
Although he sits at No. 13 in the official UFC rankings ahead of Saturday, de Ridder will presumably launch into Whittaker's No. 5 slot with a win. From there, he'll likely be one win away at most from a UFC title shot.
De Ridder has moved fast in his new promotional home, but he's also staying realistic. The Whittaker bout is one of three big ones on the horizon for the middleweight division — UFC champion Dricus du Plessis defends his title against challenger Khamzat Chimaev on Aug. 16 at UFC 319; after that, top contenders Nassourdine Imavov and Caio Borralho headline UFC Paris on Sept. 6.
De Ridder believes its all set up for the best performance of the group to earn the next shot at the du Plessis vs. Chimaev winner.
"I'm very interested in what's going to happen," he said of UFC 319's title fight. "I'm very interested to see how Khamzat's going to come in. I'm very interested to see how well Dricus is going to be able to stop the takedown. It's a very cool fight.
"I don't really see Khamzat finishing him early. I see Dricus building over the third, fourth and fifth rounds. I see him maybe finishing Khamzat late or getting a decision late. That's what I see when I think about the fight, but it might all just be very different because I never get any predictions right."
Category: General Sports
