Reinier de Ridder sent a stern message to Roman Dolidze ahead of UFC Sacramento.

De Ridder is set to return on Saturday at UFC Sacramento against Dolidze in an intriguing light heavyweight fight. De Ridder is coming off back-to-back losses, and he felt like he needed to move up in weight. He will face another former middleweight who’s moved up to light heavyweight.

“No, it’s mostly the weight cut,” de Ridder told MMA Junkie. “I know what I can do. In the last fight, I wasn’t able to push as hard as I would have liked to. I wasn’t able to grapple as much. And I’m going to just get back to all the stuff I’m good at on Saturday night.”

With de Ridder not having to worry about the weight cut, he expects to have plenty of success on Saturday at UFC Sacramento.

‘Perfect Matchup’

And, along with not having to worry about the weight cut, he believes Dolidze is the perfect matchup for him and expects to make a statement on Saturday.

“It’s a perfect matchup,” de Ridder said. “Gives me some time after this to put on some more mass. So, I’m very happy with the matchup. He’s a vet, he’s been around for a very long time. He’s been in the top 10 for a long time at middleweight, and yeah, it’s a cool matchup. … I don’t know. I’m just going to kill this motherf*cker.”

If de Ridder gets his hand raised, he will snap his two-fight losing skid and also begin his light heavyweight tenure in the UFC at 1-0. He also hopes that at light heavyweight he can continue to be active and fight as often as possible to work his way up the rankings to an eventual title shot.

Reinder de Ridder enters UFC Sacramento with a record of 21-4 and is coming off a decision loss to Caio Borralho.

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