Gilbert Burns thinks Reinier de Ridder is the only middleweight who has the skillset to threaten UFC champion Khamzat Chimaev.
Chimaev (15-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) looked unstoppable in his dominant title win over Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 319 in August. Du Plessis had no answer for Chimaev’s grappling as he was taken down 12 times and controlled for more than 21 minutes.
Having lost to Chimaev in an all-out war at UFC 273, Burns says elite jiu-jitsu is what it will take to compete with the undefeated phenom.
“I think from the whole division, I think he’s the one that has more chance,” Burns said of De Ridder on the “Buiten De Kooi MMA Podcast.” “I was talking to Chimaev’s coach, jiu-jitsu coach, we fought before, and I asked, ‘Who do you think is the hardest fight?’ I said I think it’s RDR, and then he said me too. I have all of RDR’s videos. I watched everything already. It’s not an easy fight. He needs to beat one more guy.”
Burns trains with De Ridder (21-2 MMA, 4-0 UFC) at Kill Cliff FC in Florida, and thinks his teammate has the skill and size to pose problems for Chimaev.
“I think he can win,” Burns said. “I think his jiu-jitsu is high level. I trained with him a couple of times. He’s very good, very long, very big. I don’t know how he makes middleweight. He’s huge. Not easy, but I think he’s the one who can beat Chimaev. …To beat this kind of high-level wrestler, you need to have wrestling defense, and your jiu-jitsu has got to be good. You’ve got to know how to be in bad positions, protect yourself, get up and strike, and I think RDR can do that.”
But first, De Ridder has to get past short-notice replacement Brendan Allen (25-7 MMA, 13-4 UFC) in the UFC Fight Night 262 main event Oct. 18 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver (ESPN+).
