Earlier this week, it was leaked that the UFC had signed former ONE Championship middleweight and light heavyweight champion, Reinier de Ridder, adding to their tremendous free-agent acquisitions this year.
This year may be the most notable for free-agent acquisitions in the UFC as over a nine-month period, the promotion has signed Kayla Harrison, Michael ‘Venom’ Page, Kai Asakura, and now Reinier de Ridder.
With all aforementioned fighters apart from Page having held titles in other promotions, the UFC continues to grow its brand and roster and continues to separate itself from the other chasing promotions.
Reinier de Ridder to make his UFC debut at middleweight
With ‘The Dutch Knight’ having seen so much success at both 185lbs and 205lbs, he did attempt to become a three-weight champion when he took on Anatoly Malykhin for the heavyweight title in 2022.
After coming up short, the 34-year-old rematched Malykhin at 205lbs where he looked to defend his title. Unfortunately, the Dutchman was beaten in the third round, losing his light heavyweight belt.
Following some contractual issues with ONE Championship, de Ridder briefly left the promotion and took a fight on UAE Warriors 51 earlier this year, picking up a first-round knockout against Magomedmurad Khasaev.
Showing he still has the skill set to compete with the best in the world, the UFC picked him up as a free agent earlier this week, as first reported by UFC Roster Tracker.
UFC CEO, Dana White, was asked about the signing this past Tuesday following Dana White’s Contender Series, however, the boss didn’t know much about the situation with it likely being dealt with by Hunter Campbell and Sean Shelby.
“Sh*t I don’t know about that, you’d have to ask Sean or Mick about that,” White said in the post-fight press conference after he was asked about the signing.
The former double champion will make his UFC debut at middleweight with the opponent and date still yet to be set.
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Options at middleweight for Reinier de Ridder’s UFC debut
With de Ridder coming into the UFC with such a reputable name already, he will likely be given a fight inside the rankings immediately, similarly to ‘Venom’ Page.
Paulo Costa is currently ranked nine in the division, and coming off two losses he will likely have to defend his ranking in his next outing, making that potential bout make sense.
However, if the UFC is looking to settle ‘RDR’ in slowly, number 11-ranked Jack Hermansson could make sense for his debut outing in the promotion.
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