“It’s been good,” began de Ridder, who faces Caio Borralho in the co-main event of UFC 326 on Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena. “I’ve done a lot of work figuring out where my body is at, what went wrong with my body, and I think I’ve found that out. I got back to hard training. I feel basically five years younger. I feel ready to go.
“I just did a full analysis of everything that went wrong and figured out that fighting five times in 11 months is a bit too much maybe,” he added with a smile when further asked what contributed to under-performing against Allen last fall. “I really put a lot of effort into recovery this time — oxygen stuff that’s maybe a bit too boring for this, but I feel good again. I feel like I can run through a wall every once in a while.”
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But the best example of his directness came in his assessment of the contest, which ended between the fourth and fifth rounds when de Ridder and his corner acknowledged that he was unable to continue, giving Allen the stoppage win and a place in the Top 5.
When asked if he learned anything else from the bout that led to adjustments in this camp or altered how he viewed his place in the division, de Ridder simply said, “Mostly just the physical thing, mostly just recovery.
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