Reinier de Ridder turns his eyes to this month’s highly anticipated middleweight title clash Dricus du Plessis and Khamzat Chimaev.
After an impressive split decision victory over Robert Whitaker in Abu Dhabi, De Lidar surged his 185 pound ranking, landing in fifth place and potentially winning a shot at the top prize in the category.
But before he can cash on the perfect occasion, he will need to sit down and see how things unfold when the monarch world champion Duplesis puts his belt on the line against the unbeaten Chechen monsters of UFC 319.
“RDR” has already expressed his willingness to fight Duplesis, where Chimaev should retreat, as he is known to do so. However, if the fight is no longer a problem, Dutchman hopes that “DDP” will overcome the odds and maintain his title.
“I think he’ll be a huge name, especially if Kam That wins this, especially if he wins decisively. “So maybe Doricus would win. And he can fight in four or six months. That would be the best.”
Who will lose “O” within the octagon in UFC 319?
Duplesis’s third middleweight title defense, with the first two facing Israel Adesanya and Shawn Strickland.
DDP’ enters the fight with a perfect 9-0 record within the Octagon, but Chimaev is 14-0 in his mixed martial arts career, with those eight wins coming under the UFC banner. “Bolz” entered the scene in 2020, winning three fights in two months, but a nasty case of Covid-19 stopped him from moving forward.
Chimaev continues to win big battles, but he has little appearance. 2022 was the last time he had fought multiple times in a calendar year.