Reiner de Ridder finally breaks his silence.
Saturday wasn’t a good night for the UFC middleweight. Ridder was coming off an impressive win over Robert Whittaker and many saw him as the favorite since he was on a strong five fight winning streak. During the first round, Ridder handled Brendan Allen easily and it seemed that this would be his sixth consecutive win.
However, the 35-year-old was beaten with ease for the next three rounds by Brendan Allen. Ridder’s coach made the decision to call the fight quits on his client’s behalf. His coach recently spoke out about why he decided to call the bout for his fighter.
Ridder released a video on instagram and it’s an honest and raw reaction to him losing at UFC Vancouver.
“I was not the best fighter in the cage Saturday and it stings,” de Ridder wrote on Instagram. “But next to all the crazy highs I am also grateful to experience the lows. So many people go through life at a constant 6/10 but as a fighter we get to experience the full set of options.”
Ridder further explained that his body simply wasn’t 100% coming in and that’s he’s planning to take some time off to heal.
“If we have shared the mats you know I tend to work more and harder than anybody else,” de Ridder said. “But over the last two camps, I might have exaggerated a little bit. I was so focused on getting that title and being ready once the chance came that I failed to listen to my body and last Saturday that showed.
I shall not stray the course but daddy is taking some time off kids. I was not myself but I will be again. If you know me, you know what I’m coming for. Be nice out there and see you soon.”
Since the main event, Ridder has fallen down four spots in the divisional rankings. He’s now at number eight whereas Ridder was at four before Saturday. Brendan Allen also jumped up four spots as he’s currently ranked at number five.
There’s no telling how long Ridder is going to be out, but he came back from his loss on Saturday. The UFC middleweight is a talented fighter so if he adjusts his gameplan by studying what went wrong at UFC Vancouver then he has a strong shot at coming back even better than before.