Expect a much fresher “RDR.”
Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight contender Reinier de Ridder makes his Light Heavyweight debut against Roman Dolidze on the UFC Sacramento main card this weekend (Sat., Aug. 22, 2026) inside Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California.
And the move is probably long overdue.
Despite enjoying tremendous success at Middleweight — climbing within one victory of a potential title shot — de Ridder destroyed his body in the process of making the 185-pound
limit.
At 6’4,” de Ridder was gigantic for the division. During his first year with UFC, the Dutch fighter successfully made Middleweight five times, which seems absolutely insane in hindsight.
It finally caught up with him against Brendan Allen at UFC Vancouver. After a strong opening round, de Ridder suffered what he later described as a complete metabolic crash. He faded badly and was ultimately unable to continue after the fourth round.
Five months later, de Ridder attempted Middleweight one final time against top contender Caio Borralho. However, with the fear of another physical collapse still in the back of his mind, “RDR” fought far more cautiously and dropped a unanimous decision.
Following back-to-back losses, enough was enough.
“It came with so many problems — the weight cuts,” de Ridder told MMA Junkie when asked about his move. “My body was gone, broken down after all those cuts. It took all the fun out of training camps. It took all the fun out of fighting. It was just time to move up.
“During that last weight cut, I was already saying this was the last one,” de Ridder continued. “One of the shit things is that you’re focused more on the weight cut than training. I was basically dieting year-round.”
De Ridder typically hovered around 215 pounds at Middleweight, requiring him to shed roughly 30 pounds before stepping on the scale. He was also constantly dieting just to get his weight low enough to begin the final cut, which explains why his body eventually failed him.
That has not been an issue during his first UFC camp at 205 pounds.
“During this camp, I’ve been able to train twice a day, and it’s been a very long time since I’ve been able to do that,” de Ridder revealed. “Going live twice a day just hasn’t been something I’ve been able to do, so I’m excited to show what I can do now.”
Although this will be de Ridder’s UFC Light Heavyweight debut, he is no stranger to competing against larger opponents. The former two-division ONE Championship titleholder previously fought at 205 and 225 pounds before signing with UFC.
De Ridder is also supremely confident in his matchup against Dolidze, bluntly declaring, “I’m going to kill this motherf—ker.”
With the Light Heavyweight division lacking established title contenders and its champion currently sidelined, de Ridder could make an immediate splash this weekend. More importantly, for the first time in his UFC career, “RDR” can enter the Octagon focused entirely on his opponent instead of surviving the scale.
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