Former two-division ONE Championship title holder Reinier de Ridder (18-2 MMA, 1-0 UFC) logged a solid UFC debut when he battled reputable submission ace Gerald Meerschaert at UFC Vegas 100. Weathering an early onslaught by the Midwesterner, de Ridder secured the finish in the third round with an arm triangle choke, taking out the man with the most stoppage victories in the middleweight class. Although his much-anticipated arrival into the promotion left him with a few bumps and bruises, de Ridder has inserted himself as a potential contender in the division, with many interesting matchups now residing on the distant horizon.
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Now, let’s take a look at who Reinier de Ridder should fight next.
Michel Pereira
He didn’t get the job done in stunning fashion, but, in the end, de Ridder did manage to vanquish a sturdy opponent in Meerschaert. Given that he stopped the Kill Cliff FC standout, along with his credentials as a double champion in ONE, the UFC could set up “The Dutch Knight” with a ranked opponent right away. For his first taste of the division’s upper echelon, de Ridder should face Michel Pereira.
Known for his absurd level of knockout power, Pereira would easily be one of the toughest tests of the Dutchman’s career, other than his previous two losing encounters to Anatoly Malykhin, the only man to ever beat him. Should de Ridder keep his hands low like he did in the Meerschaert bout, then there is no doubt he will be on his back staring at the lights within the first round. Fortunately, for the European, the blueprint to beat the Brazilian was seemingly discovered following his main event loss to Anthony Hernandez last month: get Pereira to the ground, and keep him there.
That wouldn’t be a problem for an accomplished Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt like de Ridder, considering 12 of his 18 professional wins have come by way of submission. It is true that Pereira is a black belt himself, but it was proven in his defeat to “Fluffy” that he is much more comfortable keeping the fight on the feet than on the ground.
Abus Magomedov
Picking up a win over a man with as many bouts as Meerschaert was a splendid way for de Ridder to kick off his journey in the UFC, and for his next appearance in the Octagon, he could lock horns with another double digit fight veteran in Abus Magomedov.
Coming off of a submission victory over Bruno Ferreira at UFC 308, the Dagestani has started to collect some momentum again after dropping back-to-back contests in 2023 to former middleweight champion Sean Strickland and Caio Borralho.
Although he may not be as versatile in the standup game as Magomedov, de Ridder can boast a great degree of durability and stamina, having gone the five round distance once at ONE on TNT 4 back in 2021. To his credit, Magomedov has been involved in several five round scraps himself, however, those ended within the first ten minutes. Therefore, should their encounter make it to the third round, barring de Ridder hasn’t ended it sooner with a submission, the Dutchman’s gas tank should hold out better than Magomedov’s, who notably began to tire after two rounds against Strickland.
Rodolfo Vieira
As it stands, the UFC middleweight division contains a bevy of notable grapplers, one such being Brazilian finisher Rodolfo Vieira. Possessing a 5-2 record in the promotion, “The Black Belt Hunter” has remarkably earned all of his victories in the cage by submission, taking down strong opposition such as Dustin Stoltzfus, Cody Brundage, and Armen Petrosyan. Funnily enough, he also ended four of those five wins with an arm triangle choke.
The threat that Vieira poses on the ground makes him a dangerous adversary to anyone in the weight class, even for a submission artist of de Ridder’s caliber. But with his dispatching of Meerschaert, who is also a black belt, “The Dutch Knight” has shown that he has the toolset to hang even with the top grapplers of the division. In a chance meeting between these two, it wouldn’t be out of the question to witness “The Black Belt Hunter” finding himself being hunted down and tapped in his element.
