On Saturday evening, Reinier de Ridder will be confronted with a colleague grief specialist in the middleweight division of the UFC.
The former two -weight champion of one championship has been the land focused since he made his debut in the Octagon in November.
With back-to-back entry wins on Gerald Meerschaert and Kevin Holland, De Ridder has shown that he is still an incredibly dangerous operator as soon as the fight hits the floor.
In Des Moines he will want to achieve his biggest victory so far when he is confronted with the undefeated Bo Nickal in the Co-Main event on 3 May.
Long before he started making some noise in the UFC on 185 pounds, 'The Dutch Knight' had already earned a reputation to make his opponents unconscious.
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
Reinier de Ridder stitched Vitaly Bigdash with an inverted triangle on one 159
With 14 of his 19 wins that come through submission, it is no secret what Reinier De Ridder tries to do when he steps the cage, but this approach turned out to be incredibly successful for him during his time in one championship.
His most impressive finish arrived at a 159 in July 2022, where he set his one middleweight title for the second time after the depreciation of Aung La n Sang and his two belts in back-to-back battles.
Vitaly Bigdash, a former middleweight champion, rode a three-fighter win on the way to his title shot, but his momentum did not prevent him from falling into a fall.
Surprisingly, it was the challenger who was the first to take the fight to the floor after he jumped for a tight guillotine choke who survived the knight.
From here 'The Dutch Knight' dominated from the top until he lost the position after a kimura that led him to be on the bottom.
This scramble only came back for the challenger who was immediately threatened by another entry, while De Ridder locked up an inverted triangle with his legs and Bigdash in just under 3 and a half minutes to sleep.
The finish earned the entry of the year from 2022 of the year as 'RDR' to 16-0 in his pro-career.
In the past, Bo Nickal has overcome submission specialists such as Reinier de Ridder
It is a regular event in MMA that when you get two accomplished grapplers, they choose to test each other's striking instead of trusting their specialized skills.
This was the case for Bo Nickal and Paul Craig when they met at UFC 309 in November, where the American won a unanimous decision.
Although he received some criticism of his performance, Nickal showed that he could beat a dangerous grappler without having to use his struggle.
We will discover on 3 May whether he can do the same thing for the knight in Reinier or whether 'the Dutch Knight' will achieve his third consecutive victory in just 7 months.