Reinier de Ridder is moving up to 205 pounds after deciding that repeated cuts to the middleweight limit had taken too much out of him. Ahead of his light heavyweight debut against Roman Dolidze on Saturday at UFC Sacramento, de Ridder said the process of making 185 pounds had become a bigger issue than the fights themselves.
De Ridder said the decision was not based on one bad week. It was the result of several difficult weight cuts that left him feeling drained in camp and on fight week. He said that in the last couple of fights, every time he cut weight, he felt the same thing: it had to be the last time.
“Because it was just rough every time and not only the weight cut, not just during fight week but also in training camp, it was so hard to recover between sessions,” de Ridder said. “It took so much out of me. It’s time to move up.”
Why the move matters
De Ridder’s comments also speak to a broader issue in MMA: how much damage extreme cutting can do before a fighter even steps into the cage. He said he made weight six times in a little over a year, and in his view that kind of grind can affect the body, recovery and even hormone levels.
“I did like six in a little over a year and it just f*cks everything up,” de Ridder said. “It f*cks your body up. It f*cks your hormone levels up. Everything goes to shit.”
He also questioned the logic of the system itself, pointing out that fighters often spend the week obsessing over the scale before putting the real weight back on by fight night. In his words, making weight comes first and the fight becomes second, which he called wrong.
De Ridder said top middleweights are often much bigger than the number listed on the scales, and he believes that creates a real size disadvantage for anyone pushing his body through repeated cuts. “I weigh in at 185, my opponent weighs in at 185, both of us weigh in at 210 when we fight,” he said. “If I’m fighting guys who are killers and who are as good as we are that’s 25 pounds heavier, that’s a problem.”
What comes next
The move to light heavyweight comes after a busy run for de Ridder in 2025. He booked his fourth fight of the year, opened his UFC career with four straight wins, then beat Robert Whittaker and Bo Nickal during that streak before the slide began. After that, he lost to Brendan Allen when his body effectively shut down and his corner stopped the fight, then dropped his next bout to Caio Borralho.
Now the focus turns to whether the added size and the relief from harsh cuts can help him reset at 205 pounds. Saturday’s debut against Roman Dolidze will be the first test of whether the move solves the problem de Ridder says has been slowing him down.
