Reinier de Ridder kept his foot on the gas for nearly his entire UFC middleweight run. Four wins in seven months drove him to the edge of title contention until his body forced him to slow down. Now, De Ridder is refueled and ready for a new challenge.

De Ridder makes his UFC light heavyweight debut against Roman Dolidze at UFC Fight Night on Saturday, joining a growing list of middleweights exploring new opportunities at 205 pounds. His UFC rise happened fast. He’d already beaten former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker and highly-touted prospect Bo Nickal by the time he met Brendan Allen. A fifth win in less than a year could have put him within reach of a title shot. 

Instead, De Ridder completely imploded against Allen, exhausting himself to the point that his corner threw in the towel.

“I pushed my body too far,” De Ridder told CBS Sports. “Too many weight cuts and training camps in too short a time period. Now able to feed myself during camp, I’m pushing hard twice a day for eight weeks. I’m going to show that on Saturday.”

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De Ridder believes the schedule caught up with him. He took nearly six months off before returning against Caio Borralho at UFC 326, hoping the extended break would correct the problem. Physically, he felt better but still limited. Mentally, the Allen fight hadn’t completely left him.

“I still had some doubt in my mind,” De Ridder said. “Maybe scared of getting tired as I did in the Brendan fight.”

Borralho swept the scorecards, giving De Ridder consecutive losses after he’d come so close to a middleweight title shot. At 35, De Ridder doesn’t want to start the climb over while squeezing his 6-foot-4 frame down to 185 pounds.

He isn’t alone. Dolidze made the same decision, giving De Ridder an opponent familiar in size while he grows into the division. De Ridder isn’t trying to become a full-fledged light heavyweight again overnight. 

“I’m very happy with this matchup because it gives me more time to put on mass,” De Ridder said. “I’ll try to put on more kilos after the fight.”

Other former middleweights have already made noise at 205. Paulo Costa is approaching the top five after knocking out Azamat Murzakanov, while Whittaker stopped Nikita Krylov to enter the ranks. De Ridder might have the highest ceiling of the group.

Unlike Costa and Whittaker, De Ridder has already built a championship career around fighting men this size. He held ONE Championship titles in two divisions, competing under a different weight-class structure that allowed him to fight considerably heavier than he has during his UFC run. He also won’t surrender the size that most middleweights do moving up.

“I’ll be the same height as the 205 guys,” De Ridder said. “Relative to most light heavyweights, I’ll be a little bit taller.”

It’s part of what makes this middleweight migration interesting. Whittaker brings speed and experience. Costa brings enormous power and has always been one of the division’s most physically imposing fighters. De Ridder brings length, grappling and the experience of succeeding at higher weight classes.

“Paulo only does well against southpaws,” De Ridder said, before acknowledging with a grin that he is one himself. “Maybe he wants to fight me.

“I think Robert looked so good and quick. I hope he does very well.”

All four middleweights moving up have reached points where the road to a UFC title at 185 pounds has been blocked. Continuing to make a difficult weight becomes less appealing when the payoff isn’t immediately obvious. De Ridder knows how close he was before everything went sideways.

“There were many options at middleweight before I lost those dumb fights. I was almost there before I messed myself up,” De Ridder said. “At 205, I think if I do well in this way and put Roman away spectacularly, I’ll fight a top 10 guy next. 

“It’s all in my hands. If I do well and put guys away like I know I can, I think I’ll be close to fighting for a title soon.”

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