Reinier de Ridder has yet to comment on his loss at UFC Vancouver, but his coach has.
On Saturday evening, de Ridder squared off against Brendan Allen in the main event of UFC Vancouver, adn things could scarcely have gone worse. After a strong opening round, de Ridder seemed to hit a wall, and Allen took over, wearing “RDR” down with ground-and-pound and positional control. By the end of the fourth round, de Ridder was so exhausted he could barely make it back to his corner, and once on the stool,
his head coach, Harun Ozkan, made the decision to stop the fight.
Though there wasn’t much pushback about the stoppage, corners rarely throw in the towel in MMA, and perhaps as a result, de Ridder’s coach felt compelled to explain his decision in a social media post on Sunday.
Friends, fans, and supporters,
I normally don’t share personal things on here, but I feel I owe a little explanation to everyone who’s been behind us. First of all, thank you for the amazing support we’ve been receiving. It’s been a crazy and busy year so far.
Last night didn’t go as we wanted. After a very strong start in the first round, things quickly started fading and we couldn’t really recover from the shots in and after the second round. I made the call to stop the fight after the fourth round. I take full responsibility for that decision and it was the right call to make for me in the moment. It’s not a decision I ever wanted to make, but I guess sometimes you have to.
My job is to coach, but also to look out for my fighter’s health. I’ve been with Reinier for basically his whole career and saw too many signs that made me step in. If I didn’t do anything, he would’ve continued the fight. Rather than risk unnecessary damage, I decided to call it a day and go home as healthy as possible. Live to fight another day.
I absolutely do not care about pleasing others if it comes at the cost of someone’s health. There’s a thin line between “being tough” and watching out for your health. This sport can be brutal. These guys sacrifice a lot of their life in and out of the cage – there’s no need for excess damage if it can be avoided. Most people forget they’re human too.
Zero excuses for this loss, we knew what we were going for. We are not happy with this performance, but for now recovery first, evaluate some stuff and we will be back next year. It has been an amazing year overall and thankful for all the highs and lows in life.
Proud of you my brother @deriddermma. We’ve come a long way.
Have a wonderful day everyone and thank you for the continued support.
All love,
(coach) Harun
The loss was the first of de Ridder’s UFC career and a big setback for the Dutch fighter who was originally supposed to fight Anthony Hernandez in a potential title eliminator bout. Now, de Ridder is well outsider the middleweight title picture.
