Reinier de Ridder is confident that a statement win over Brendan Allen at UFC Vancouver should put him in a position to compete for a UFC title with hopes to face reigning middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev in early 2026.
Already 3-0 on the year with wins over Bo Nickal, former champion Robert Whittaker and Kevin Holland, the 35-year-old Dutch fighter believes a fourth victory in the same calendar year should put him in a perfect position for title contention. Of course while de Ridder’s sole focus is winning and fighting for gold, Chimaev recently turned his attention towards a possible superfight against UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira.
It seems highly unlikely that Chimaev gets his wish, especially considering he hasn’t even defended his own title yet, but even de Ridder admits that would be an interesting fight.
“It sounds ridiculous but if we’re talking styles make fights then I do give [Chimaev] a shot,” de Ridder told MMA Fighting. “Don’t you give Chimaev a shot if he fights Pereira? We haven’t really seen what Alex can do because he’s mostly been fighting mostly strikers. Even [Magomed] Ankalaev is mostly a striker. But let me get some work with Khamzat first.”
The assessment on Pereira’s run as champion isn’t off base, but there’s no telling for certain if wrestling really is his most glaring weakness. There’s little doubt that is Chimaev’s biggest weapon but for now it seems like all that talk won’t amount to much.
Anything is possible but de Ridder truly believes Chimaev’s next fight is happening at middleweight and he expects to solidify himself as the opponent with an emphatic win in the UFC Vancouver main event.
The biggest obstacle for de Ridder isn’t Pereira but more likely Nassourdine Imavov, who is riding a five-fight win streak including victories over former champion Israel Adesanya, Jared Cannonier and most recently Caio Borralho.
His resume is undoubtedly impressive but that only fuels de Ridder to look that much better in this upcoming fight, especially after watching Imavov beat Borralho, but he failed to finish or blow anybody away with his performance that night.
“It’s kind of the same with what happened in the Whittaker fight for me,” de Ridder explained. “I got the win but I could have done better there as well. I wanted to finish him. I wanted to make a bit more of a statement. Kind of the same thing happened for him but it happened against Caio and Caio is just not a top 10 guy at the moment. He’s not there yet. Maybe he will if he develops a bit and he has a bit of a name because of the Fighting Nerds and whatever. But skill for skill and looking at his strength of schedule, he’s just not there yet.
“A guy like that, it would have been nice for Imavov if he would have been able to put him away. I think Caio and Brendan are similar in a lot of regards. So it’s very much up to me, if I can finish him, if I can look good and I can do it early, I think it’s not a hard choice who’s next for the title.”
Timing also probably plays a part in the title shot opportunity with Chimaev winning the belt in August but most likely not fighting again until sometime in early 2026.
That’s one of the reasons why de Ridder opted to take the UFC Vancouver main event because adding another win and then staying ready for Chimaev feels like the perfect situation for him.
“Because February is going to be Ramadan, right, so most likely Khamzat would like to fight somewhere January or early February,” de Ridder said. “So I thought it would be smart to fight now and then take a bit of a break and start preparing for Khamzat after this fight.
“That would be so cool. January or February would be perfect for me and then I feel like I get more time off than I’ve had in these couple of fights before. That would be the dream scenario.”
First things first, de Ridder needs to win on Saturday, but with a few style points and getting the UFC fans on his side, he believes he’ll be the clear cut choice to face Chimaev next.
“I just need a lot of people on my side I guess,” de Ridder said. “I need to do good next weekend and then I’m next.”
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