Reinier de Ridder is proud to call himself a mixed martial artist, but he’s never going to shy away from his world-class grappling game.
In 19 career wins, the former two-division champion in ONE Championship has 13 submissions on his resume, and he’s already tapped out his first two opponents since joining the UFC roster. But his next matchup at UFC Des Moines on May 3 presents a very interesting challenge when de Ridder faces three-time national champion wrestler Bo Nickal, who is also one of the most hyped prospects to ever compete in the UFC.
While Nickal has displayed his dominant grappling in the past, he was heavily criticized for refusing to go for takedowns in his most recent outing against Paul Craig, which almost exclusively played out on the feet.
“It wasn’t that great to watch.,” de Ridder told MMA Fighting about Nickal’s latest win. “But he showed off that his striking is not that bad. He has pretty decent footwork as well. He hits pretty hard. He throws everything into that left overhand. But he wasn’t really able to make a statement in that fight. Maybe he just had a bad night, who knows?”
For all the ways de Ridder has confidence matching his striking skills against Nickal, he knows that’s not the reason this matchup got put together.
This fight might pit one of the nastiest submission specialists on the entire UFC roster against a world-class wrestler with a long list of accomplishments to back up that claim. But after watching Nickal refuse to engage with Craig on the ground, de Ridder expects he might have to force the Penn State alum to grapple him.
“I think I have to make him wrestle,” de Ridder said. “As we saw in the Paul Craig fight, I think he’s pretty scared of the jiu-jitsu on the floor. He’s pretty scared to get caught with something. So I think I need to make him wrestle.
“I need to get close, put the pressure on him, hit him a couple times, and I think he will definitely start shooting. I think this fight is won or lost in the clinch. This is where the most of the fight is going to happen and most of the exchanges of the fight will happen. I’m really working on seeing if I can get him with some good knees, some good elbows. Throwing him, tripping him, getting to his back. That’s the plan.”
Many times in the past when two incredibly high-level grapplers meet up in the UFC, the fight turns into a sloppy striking contest because neither fighter wants to give up an inch if the action hits the floor.
As much as de Ridder doesn’t fear trading hands with Nickal, he knows that isn’t what the UFC wants out of this fight much less the fans buying tickets or tuning into watch this co-main event in May.
“Who wants to see us strike?” de Ridder said with a laugh. “We’re both decent strikers but come on, let’s have some fun. Like Demian Maia and Ben Askren in the first round. Nobody wants to see that shit.”
All jokes aside, de Ridder promises he’s ready for whatever gets thrown at him but don’t think for a second that he won’t force the issue if Nickal just refuses to engage with him to avoid a grappling exchange.
He gets labeled as a submission specialist, but de Ridder never forgets his roots in judo so if he gets the time and opportunity to drop Nickal on his head, that’s exactly what he’ll do.
“I think [I can take him down]. I think I’ll have a shot at that as well,” de Ridder said. “I’ve always trained with a lot of high level wrestlers, especially here in Florida [at Kill Cliff FC]. Something I’ve always noticed is upper body work is where I do my best work normally.
“In most of the fights it doesn’t really get there, like in the Kevin Holland fight I could already get him down with the single [leg takedown], but my first love is judo, and if I can just throw him around a little bit, that would very good.”
On paper, de Ridder is already taking the bigger risk with this fight because the UFC has him ranked in the top 15 at middleweight while Nickal is still sitting on the outside looking in.
While he hoped for a top-five opponent like Khamzat Chimaev for his next appearance, de Ridder definitely understands how much name value matters in the UFC and Nickal definitely qualifies in that category.
“I really wanted a top five guy but now Bo Nickal is at least a top five name, right?” de Ridder said. “He’s a very well-known guy, and if I can get him out of here as well, I think it really does well. It will really get me up there in the rankings.
“I’m very happy with the matchup, and stylistically, it’s going to be fun, too. It’s going to be cool to see who has the better grappling.”
If he’s able to go out there, and derail the hype around Nickal on May 3, de Ridder expects to find himself in a very advantageous place in the division hierarchy.
Current UFC middleweight champion Dricus de Plessis is expected to clash with Chimaev later this year and Nassourdine Imavov is likely waiting in the wings after he recently dispatched Israel Adesanya in impressive fashion back in February.
Looking at the lay of the land in his division, de Ridder can’t say for certain how high he can climb if he ends Nickal at UFC Des Moines, but he knows it puts him in a very advantageous position.
“A lot of the guys at the top have already fought each other,” de Ridder said. “Who knows? If I can do this the right way, choke him out early, I think I have something to say at least.”
