Reinier de Ridder sounds finished with middleweight cuts. Ahead of his light heavyweight fight with Roman Dolidze in Sacramento, de Ridder said the move to 205 pounds has changed the way he can train, eat, and recover.
De Ridder said he spent part of camp lifting to add size, but the bigger difference is not having to build every day around restriction.
“I’ve been lifting a lot but mostly before real camp started,” de Ridder said. “I’ve been lifting a lot trying to put on some weight. But I’ve always been like if I out of camp I’ve always been like 220. So, and I’m 225 now.”
“It’s mostly nice to just be able to eat after a session,” de Ridder said. “Not have to do all this restriction in portion size, but also I did a lot of fasting just just to be able to get close to the weight. And I’m so [ __ ] glad that that I don’t have to do that [ __ ] anymore.”
Asked to compare that to his ONE Championship run, de Ridder explained that the numbers were different there because middleweight was 205 pounds under that system.
“Middleweight was a 205 in ONE,” de Ridder said. “And I was a little less big at the time. I was like 210 walking around.”
“The hydration test basically, in the beginning nobody knew how it worked,” de Ridder said. “So everybody was kind of around the range of 205 like me. But then after a couple years everybody found out that you can just drink demineralized water or something and then drink this do your weight cut and you will stay hydrated. So everybody I was fighting was still 220, 225.”
De Ridder Says 205 Is Home Now
The most direct answer came when de Ridder was asked about several former middleweights moving up around the same time.
“Middleweight is still great,” de Ridder said. “A lot of cool stuff going on there, but I’m never going back. It’s over. 205 is my home.”
He said he is happy with how his run played out, but admitted the pace of his middleweight schedule was a mistake in hindsight.
“If I would have been a bit more honest to myself, it’s just making 185 six times in a little bit over a year is just the dumbest [ __ ] I’ve ever done,” de Ridder said. “That’s just not, it’s not real.”
“I think it’s time to figure something out with this whole weight cut thing anyway because this limits us fighters so much as towards activity,” de Ridder said. “It’s so weird that we ended up here. Everybody cuts 10% of body weight. Everybody is compromised when they fight. Why are we still doing this [ __ ]?”
De Ridder Wants A New Weight-Cut System
De Ridder also sketched out a possible fix. He said a single day-of-fight weigh-in would still tempt fighters to dehydrate, so his idea would track weight across fight week and attach fines when fighters miss agreed marks.
“I think there is a way, because of all this circus we already have, to maybe weigh every day of fight week,” de Ridder said. “You can be over the weight on Tuesday for instance, you can be a little bit less over on Wednesday. You can be a little less over on Thursday. You got to be on weight on Friday and you got to be on weight on Saturday once you leave the cage.”
“There needs to be like some sort of set way you penalize people for not making weight,” de Ridder said. “I don’t mind fighting a guy who’s 5 lbs heavier, maybe even 10 pounds heavier, that’s all right. But if I don’t cut weight, I’m fighting a guy who’s 25 pounds heavier. That’s crazy.”
Inside the cage, the plan is still familiar. De Ridder said a win over Dolidze could move him quickly toward a top-10 opponent, and he made no secret of how he wants the fight to look.
“It might be quick, right? If I can do this one, nice. Put him away,” de Ridder said. “Then I think I’ll be fighting a top 10 guy next and after that maybe one or two fights before I’m there.”
“When fight time comes, it’s not like I have a lot of options,” de Ridder said. “Eventually, I’m going to get close, try and choke a [ __ ] out. So, that never really changes. Whatever weight class, whatever opponent, that’s always the goal.”
“He is definitely capable of throwing some crazy [ __ ] up too, like rolling for legs,” de Ridder said of Dolidze. “He likes to spin more than he likes to throw a jab. So this could be a very interesting fight, but if I do what I can, it’s not going to take long.”
That makes de Ridder’s next fight more than a simple division change. It is his first real chance to prove that the heavier class is not just more comfortable, but a better version of his career.
For more context, read about de Ridder vs. Dolidze being set for UFC Sacramento, the rest of the UFC Sacramento card, and more MMA news.
