Reinier de Ridder and Bo Nickal have a common enemy.
In May, ‘RDR’ handed Nickal his first career loss in mixed martial arts, brutally KO’ing the former Nittany Lion in the second round of their UFC Des Moines co-main event.
Now, the Dutchman is eager to train with Nickal in hopes of giving the world-class wrestler a shot at being the man to beat the newly minted middleweight world titleholder, Khamzat Chimaev.
“I got everything I needed this morning at least, but maybe I’ll see if I can get some more wrestlers,” de Ridder told MMA Junkie. “There’s a lot of them already. I was thinking I might try and send a message to Bo Nickal if I could get him out. That’d be amazing. That would be amazing for this fight especially. We’ll see. That would be pretty cool.”
While a battle between Chimaev and Nickal seems inevitable, the three-time NCAA Division I champion has some work to do before getting a crack at UFC gold. However, de Ridder may be just one big win away from a showdown with the undefeated Chechen monster.
Reinier de Ridder meets ‘Fluffy’ Hernandez in Vancouver
After landing a split decision victory over Robert Whittaker in Abu Dhabi, ‘RDR’ launched himself into the middleweight top five and became an instant title contender. Now, he’ll look to solidify himself as the next man up when he meets surging 185-pound sensation Anthony Hernandez in the UFC Vancouver headliner on October 18.
Earlier this month, ‘Fluffy’ delivered an absolutely dominant performance against Roman Dolidze in Las Vegas, extending his unbeaten streak to eight and improving his record inside the Octagon to 9-2.
