Top UFC middleweight contender Reinier De Ridder clearly has an eye on what’s happening at the top of his division, as he recently shared his thoughts on the controversial referee standups that happened in the title-fight between Dricus Du Plessis and Khamzat Chimaev. Referees will often stand fighters up when they believe that one or both of them is stalling or at least not making progression, but during this fight it happened when Chimaev was in a very dominant position. Fortunately for Chimaev it didn’t cost him anything, as he still won the fight by unanimous decision and became the new middleweight world champion.
Although it did no harm in the end, it could easily have swung the fight in Du Plessis’ favor. As a talented grappler himself it’s understandable that this would be a concern for de Ridder, especially as he prepares to face Anthony Hernandez at UFC Fight Night 262. He shared his thoughts on the standups and he clearly wasn’t happy with them:
“I think what the ref did was totally wrong. Marc Goddard standing them up, that was very bad. I don’t think that was a good plan at all. Because Khamzat (Chimaev) was in control, he was raining down punches, he was trying. I don’t think Marc Goddard should have interfered there.”
With the fight with Hernandez fast-approaching, it makes sense that de Ridder was paying attention to the title-fight. A win there could see him being next in line for a title-shot. Not only was he complimentary of Chimaev but he actually sympathised with his approach too:
“Khamzat was controlling so well. I do understand that he didn’t want to take too much risk but I would have liked see him try a bit more with the ground and pound and everything … I thought those (standups) were very bad.”
The full interview with Reinier de Ridder where he talks about the referee standups in the Khamzat Chimaev vs Dricus Du Plessis fight was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of MMAFighting:
