Reinier de Ridder gets honest about physical condition after UFC Vancouver loss

UFC middleweight contender Reinier de Ridder has spoken openly about his physical condition after his UFC Vancouver defeat at the hands of Brendan Allen.

As we know, Reinier de Ridder was on a fantastic run of form heading into his main event encounter with Brendan Allen. While many acknowledged that Allen had a chance of pulling off the upset, RDR was the clear favorite. In the end, though, Allen forced de Ridder to retire on the stool, in what served as a pretty surprising result in the Great White North.

Reinier de Ridder was quick to note some of the injuries and health problems that he had been dealing with, but that didn’t stop the masses from calling him a quitter as a result of him opting against continuing to fight.

In a recent interview, Reinier de Ridder went into more detail about where he’s currently at.

Reinier de Ridder opens up on his health

“I still feel like sh*t,” de Ridder told Submission Radio. “When I walk up the stairs, I’m out of breath. There’s a lot of information coming back from the blood work and everything, but I don’t want to be too specific because then I’ll never get a rematch.

“There are some physical stuff that are wrong, and I’m going to see if I can fix all of this before I come back. It’s something that I’ve struggled with in the past with the second (Anatoly) Malykhin fight, and I thought I fixed it, but apparently I didn’t.”

“I f*cked it up big time,” de Ridder said. “In training camp looking back, I was just pushing myself way too far. Basically the entire camp, I was feeling slow, very run down, very tired after every session, during every session. To be honest, even in the Robert (Whittaker) camp, I wasn’t even feeling like myself in the last couple of weeks.

“But I was very stubborn as a Dutchman is supposed to be, and I kept pushing myself, kept going harder and harder, and that’s what showed in the fight. I’m not sure if it was the weight cut. It must play a part because it was much harder to get down this time. But most importantly, I beat up my body up this year like crazy. I went too far. … I was so focused to finally get my title shot, and I thought I would secure it in Vancouver, so I kept pushing.”

Quotes via MMA Junkie