Fresh off his successful Octagon debut, former two-division ONE champion Reinier de Ridder has his next assignment in the calendar for UFC 311.
After parting ways with ONE Championship earlier this year and subsequently returning to winning ways under the UAE Warriors banner, de Ridder (18-2) had his lifelong ambition of a venture to the UFC come to fruition.
The Dutchman made his first appearance on the UFC Vegas 100 card at the Apex earlier this month, sharing the cage with middleweight veteran Gerald Meerschaert. While de Ridder faced some adversity in the opening two rounds, he ultimately added to his submission tally with a third-round arm-triangle choke.
And it's not taken long for a new target to be placed in "The Dutch Knight's" crosshairs. Per MMA Mania's Alex Behunin, de Ridder will return at UFC 311 inside Los Angeles' newly built Intuit Dome to do battle with the always entertaining Kevin Holland (26-12, 1 NC).
"Trailblazer," a formerly ranked contender at both 185 and 170 pounds, has gone 1-1 since returning to middleweight this year off the back of a defeat to Michael "Venom" Page.
After landing a gruesome armbar submission to defeat Michał Oleksiejczuk at UFC 302 this past June, Holland most recently saw a difficult start opposite Roman Dolidze compounded by a rib injury that left him unable to continue into round two at UFC 307 last month.
With this addition the current fights expected to take place at UFC 311 on Jan. 18 are as follows:
- Jiří Procházka vs. Jamahal Hill (light heavyweight)
- Jailton Almeida vs. Serghei Spivac (heavyweight)
- Rinya Nakamura vs. Muin Gafarov (bantamweight)
- Johnny Walker vs. Bogdan Guskov (light heavyweight)
- Karol Rosa vs. Ailín Pérez (women's bantamweight)
- Zachary Reese vs. Sedriques Dumas (middleweight)
- Payton Talbott vs. Raoni Barcelos (bantamweight)
- Grant Dawson vs. Diego Ferreira (lightweight)
- Ricky Turcios vs. Benardo Sopaj (bantamweight)