Reinier de Ridder gets honest about his biggest mistake in UFC middleweight division

UFC star Reinier de Ridder has spoken candidly about the biggest mistake he made during his run in the promotion’s middleweight division.

In his next outing at UFC Sacramento, Reinier de Ridder will go head to head with Roman Dolidze as he attempts to find success at 205 pounds in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. For a while, right up until back-to-back losses, it seemed like RDR had the potential to go on and contend for the middleweight world title. Alas, it all fell apart pretty quickly.

At the time, a lot of critics called Reinier de Ridder a quitter, whereas others pointed to the fact that he decided to take on a significant amount of weight cuts (and fights) in a short space of time to try and fast-track his way to the top of the division.

In a recent interview, Reinier de Ridder admitted that the excessive weight cuts may have been where he went wrong.

Reinier de Ridder opens up on middleweight struggles 

“Middleweight is still great – a lot of cool stuff going on there – but I’m never going back,” de Ridder told MMA Junkie Radio. “It’s over: 205 is my home.”

“I’m very happy with what happened,” de Ridder said. “But if I would have been a bit more honest with myself, making 185 pounds six times in a little bit over a year is just the dumbest sh*t I’ve ever done. It’s not real, and I think it’s time to figure something out with this whole weight cut thing, anyway, because this limits us fighters so much toward activity. It’s so weird we ended up here. Everyone cuts 10 percent of their body weight. Everybody is compromised when they fight. Why are we still doing this sh*t?”

Quotes via MMA Junkie

The first step in solving any issue is acknowledging what went wrong in the first place. RDR has a lot of fans out there who all know and understand his style, and many love him for it. Who knows, maybe that exact approach is what will help lead him to the heights of the light heavyweight division. Dolidze, meanwhile, will be eager to make a real statement in Sacramento.