Reinier
de Ridder claims that the fight week ahead of his bout against
Caio
Borralho was the worst of his career.
The Dutchman suffered a lopsided unanimous decision loss in a
middleweight matchup against Borralho this past March, his last
outing at 185 pounds. He recently revealed that he had already
decided to move up to the
Ultimate Fighting Championship light heavyweight division
during fight week ahead of that bout.
De Ridder decided to leave middleweight during his weight cut
before facing Caio Borralho
The former two-division One
Championship titleholder recently recalled the days leading up
to the defeat to Borralho. He was coming off a stoppage loss to
Brendan
Allen, in which he visibly gassed out, prompting a corner
stoppage before the final round. “The Dutch Knight” has now
revealed that the weight cut for the Borralho fight was even worse
than the one that preceded the Allen bout.
“It was before the fight, during the weight cut I said, ‘This is
the last time. I’m never gonna do this again,’” de Ridder told Full
Send MMA. “That week was the worst fight week I’ve ever had.
Everything went wrong. That fight week was the worst week I’ve ever
had… Even worse than the Vancouver week. Nothing medical stuff,
wasn’t a hospital, I don’t want to make up any excuses, but it
wasn’t good.”
He finally moved up to 205 pounds for good against Roman
Dolidze at
UFC Sacramento, scoring a first-round stoppage to return to
winning ways.
Reinier
de Ridder admits he knew before the fight with Caio
Borralho he was leaving middleweight“It was before the fight, during the weight cut I said I’m never
doing this again. Everything went wrong. That fight week was the
worst week I’ve ever had” pic.twitter.com/WZBmZR1XgB— FULL SEND MMA (@full_send_mma)
August 23, 2026