UFC Middleweight Reinier de Ridder Calls for Major Weight Cutting Reform

Here with RDR big fight coming up at 185.

Also on this card though is 21-year-old Raul Rosas Junior.

Talked to him earlier about the pressures of all that he faced, you know, coming up being so young and maybe some of the bad?

Does he make, no, does he make you feel old?

So I asked some bad decisions he made.

What was the dumbest thing you bought with your first professional paycheck?

I don't.

But when I was 21, you wouldn't, you shouldn't have given me like $20,000 or whatever, no.

It would be gone by now.

Yeah, it is gone by now.

Did you buy anything smart with your first truck?

No, I remember like the first time I made money doing sports, I did a jiu-jitsu tournament in Abu Dhabi.

I won, I won $3000 which was at the time like crazy.

It was amazing for me to bring money back home from just sports.

Most likely just spend it on food and going out or whatever, yeah.

So this fight is at 185 pounds.

You said your dream is to go up to 205, and weight cutting's always a hot topic in MMA, right?

And uh Al Jermaine Sterling, a former champion, over the weekend said that he thinks they should do away with weight cutting, do same day we weigh-ins.

He says the fights would be more competitive.

What are your thoughts on that?

Yeah, 100, 100% agree.

I think there should be a movement to eliminate weight cuts because.

It's just stupid.

Both of us are going to weigh roughly the same weight on fight night, and we have to go through this nonsense all camp, all fight week , and then dehydrate like crazy.

It just makes for a less good performance, and the result is the same.

We weigh the same on fight night.

But I don't think that same day weigh-ins is the solution.

I think it's a bit more complex than that, because if you do same day weigh-ins, you still have people cutting weight on the on the fight day, and that might hinder performance.

So I think there's a better way to do this, and I'd say it might be multiple weigh-ins during the week.

Uh, like a precise algorithm of you need to make this weight on Wednesday, you need to make this weight on Thursday morning, Thursday night this weight, uh, finds in place and weighing when you walk out of the cage as well.

Um, yeah, so it's, I think it needs a very comprehensive, very complex, um, solution.

But I think we should, it's time to move towards it, yeah.

Obviously it takes such a toll on your body physically, but do you think it's more mental for you at this stage in your career?

No, mostly physical, it's just too much.

If I, I, I don't think if, um, like last year I fought 5 times in 11 months, I think the hardest part about that is doing 5 weight cuts .

It's not the fights.

What's the dream at 205?

Is this the last time we see you at 185, or is it result dependent?

Uh, no, there's still a lot of cool fights at, at middleweight, so the focus is on middleweight, but.

These last few days, uh, the dream is very alive in my head.

Yeah.

I talked to your opponent just a little while ago, and obviously you guys have a lot of hype behind you.

You're looked at as both looked at as championship contenders, both coming off a loss heading into this fight.

Do you think this makes both of you more dangerous heading in?

Yeah, I think if both of us have addressed the issues we've had, then yeah, both of us are ready to get up there in the top five again.

But let me get this one first.

The last one for me, this card's headlined by the BMF championship, Charles Max , Legends of the sport.

Who is the baddest MFer in your life, um, whether it be fighting or just in life in general?

Ah, I don't know.

My kids, uh, those, those are, I don't know how bad they are, but they, uh, they can be pretty bad at times, yeah.

Who's the baddest MFer you ever fought?

On Lan Song.

Did you hear that?

Did you hear that?

Oh, did you hear that?

Thank you so much for your time, man.