UFC light heavyweight contender Reinier de Ridder has his next callout ready following his win over Roman Dolidze at UFC Sacramento.
De Ridder absolutely destroyed Dolidze, as he got his opponent down to the mat and then rained down 71 significant strikes until referee Frank Trigg mercifully stopped the bout.
With his first win as a UFC light heavyweight now out of the way, de Ridder has his next callout ready.
Reinier de Ridder Wants Top-5 Opponent Next
Speaking to Heidi Androl of UFC on Paramount+ following his win over Dolidze, de Ridder made it clear that he wants a top-five-ranked opponent next.
“There’s a lot of names — Paulo (Costa), Jiri (Prochazka). What’s the California guy, Muay Thai guy (Khalil Rountree Jr.)?” de Ridder said.
New Life for Reinier de Ridder at Light Heavyweight
After flaming out of the UFC middleweight division with back-to-back losses against Brendan Allen and Caio Borralho, de Ridder made the decision to move up 20 lbs and go up to light heavyweight.
He has said that cutting so much weight to get down to 185 lbs was killing him, so the move up to light heavyweight is giving de Ridder a second chance at UFC title contention, since he no longer has to sap his body to make the middleweight division.
While Dolidze is not an elite fighter in the UFC, beating him up the way that de Ridder did was extremely impressive, and it should land him a big-name opponent for his next fight.
Could that be Costa, Prochazka, or Rountree? It remains to be seen, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see him get one of these big names after such a dominant win over Dolidze.
Given how good he looked against Dolidze, don’t be surprised if the UFC fast-tracks de Ridder up the UFC light heavyweight division. Before the weight cuts killed him at middleweight, he was looking like a serious contender in that weight class.
Now that he’s not killing himself to make weight, he should be even more effective at light heavyweight, and the rest of LHW needs to watch out for him.
Reinier de Ridder Has Next Callout Ready After UFC Sacramento