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Reinier de Ridder’s Dream Matchup
Reinier de Ridder will make a jump up in the UFC middleweight rankings this week after picking up his fourth win in the UFC at Abu Dhabi. His split decision victory against Robert Whittaker is adding to the steam expected of the former ONE Championship, double champ. He clearly wants the winner of Dricus Deplessis and Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 319, but there is one dream matchup there for him, too.
At the time this was written, Israel Adesanya sits at number four among the UFC middleweights. This is when de Ridder was still sitting at number 13. The leap he will make after the UFC rankings panel updates them will be available soon, but there are a lot of options between him and the title, including Adesanya.
After his victory last weekend, when posed the question outside of title holder and contender who he would like next, de Ridder said, “I’m a top-five guy now. I would say Dricus, I would say Khamzat.” Which he was saying all night, but looking at the rankings, he showed interest in the former champ, Adesanya, as well.
“Adesanya would be nice. That’s a dream matchup, maybe as a first title defense,” de Ridder added to his wish list.
Fighters want a lot of fights, but the UFC matchmakers always have the final say, and with the list of names on the rankings, maybe it could be a while before he challenges for the title. When de Ridder was the champion at ONE, Adesanya was the middleweight king in the UFC, so the matchup could be a dream for a lot of MMA fans.
But we all know there’s a difference between MMA fans and UFC fans.
And history has shown the UFC rankings are only there for show when it comes to fights that sell. Check out his full interview with ESPN below.
Who do you think should be next for de Ridder?
