Reinier de Ridder Calls Out Khamzat Chimaev After UFC Debut, Details Wild Sean Strickland Training Session

UFC newcomer Reinier de Ridder has suggested a future fight against Khamzat Chimaev and has also detailed a training session he had with Sean Strickland.

Last weekend, Reinier de Ridder made his official debut for the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Following on from a run with ONE Championship that saw him capture world titles in two weight classes, he went up against Gerald Meerschaert in what served as a really interesting test of his skills.

In the end, he passed that test, managing to submit the veteran and cement himself as one to watch at middleweight. With that being said, there are still far more questions than answers regarding just how far Reinier de Ridder could go in the UFC.

Of course, nobody knows how he’ll look against tougher opposition until it actually happens. For de Ridder, it’s all about gaining experience and climbing the ranks – but that doesn’t mean he can’t look a bit further ahead to what the future could hold.

In his post-fight press conference appearance, he mentioned a few names that he has either trained with or could fight down the road – aka Sean Strickland and Khamzat Chimaev.

Reinier de Ridder examines middleweight division

“I was just training with Strickland over the last couple of weeks. So wouldn’t be as nice to call him out. But, why not Khamzat? That would be a nice matchup grappling-wise… It would be cool.”

“Very nice dude [Strickland]. We had some fun. He told me to get out of the cage because I wasn’t part of the team. But then he came running after me and said,’ I’m sorry I was wrong. You can use the cage.”

Quotes via Sportskeeda

As we’ve said, nobody knows how far Reinier de Ridder is going to go. In equal measure, he’s the kind of fighter who is always going to hang in there for as long as he possibly can, so it should be interesting to see how it all plays out.