Reinier de Ridder: Reinier de Ridder breaks down the Dricus du Plessis puzzle, offers eye-opening insights: "Make him shell up"

Reinier de Ridder recently shared his thoughts on a potential path to victory against Dricus du Plessis and offered eye-opening insights on what it would take to defeat him. The middleweight champion has been a difficult puzzle to solve since joining the promotion and has managed to overcome the odds.

Du Plessis captured the middleweight championship after dethroning Sean Strickland last year and has since made two successful title defenses, which includes impressive wins over Strickland and Israel Adesanya. He has also been impressive since joining the UFC and most recently earned a TKO win over highly touted middleweight Bo Nickal.

During his latest appearance on Submission Radio, de Ridder shared his thoughts on du Plessis and how he has proven to be a difficult matchup. The surging middleweight contender mentioned that 'Stillknocks' is a very durable fighter with an awkward style, but highlighted his striking as an area that should be exposed more:

"Everything [du Plessis] he does is so weird. The gas tank is crazy, the angles he comes with is very weird, but what we haven't seen people do to him is mixing strikes and takedowns. They all strike and then he shells up, moves back, they stop striking and then he gets another go. But I think what would be important in a Dricus fight is hit him with a couple shots, make him shell up like he likes to do. And then, push him against the cage, wrestle with him, get into the clinch."

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Check out Reinier de Ridder's comments below (13:31):

Reinier de Ridder discusses his similarities with Dricus du Plessis

Reinier de Ridder also discussed the similarities he has seen the MMA community highlight between himself and Dricus du Plessis.

During the aforementioned interview, de Ridder said:

"My wife showed me [that] people say [du Plessis and I are] goofy, so maybe that... I don't know what that really means, but fu*k them... It's all good, it's fun. As long as people talk about you, right?" [14:26]

Check out Dricus du Plessis' post-fight interview following his latest win below:

About the author

Giancarlo Aulino is an MMA news writer and interviewer at Sportskeeda. Having been onboard since 2021, Aulino has written list articles, before transitioning to MMA news writing.

In addition to writing at Sportskeeda, Aulino can be heard on VIBE 105.5FM in Toronto, Canada, where he conducts interviews called 'VIBEtalks.' Aulino's segments have featured many respected athletes, broadcasters, and celebrities. In 2024, Aulino, along with his VIBE 105 Sports team members, rebranded their content to The Game Plan 'TGP'.

In addition to MMA, Aulino was previously a pro wrestling writer and soccer (Football) reporter and covered Toronto FC (Major League Soccer) and York United FC (Canadian Premier League).

Follow him on Twitter: @Gian_411

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Edited by Tejas Rathi