Reinier de Ridder knows what could put him in "trouble" against Kevin Holland at UFC 311: "That's what I'm gonna try and stay away from"

Kevin Holland has some dangerous attributes that Reinier de Ridder seems aware of leading into UFC 311. The two men will throw down in a consequential contest at middleweight set for Saturday, Jan. 18. RDR covered several subjects during the fight week media day, with the former two-division ONE Championship titleholder having his sophomore UFC bout a few weeks after his company debut.

When breaking down the machinations of this Holland matchup in front of the assembled media covering this weekend's event, de Ridder said:

"He's [Holland's] very experienced. He's been around for a long while. He's long, rangy, and his main thing is his right hand. He has a very strong, very precise right hand and he has a lot of smoke around it. He has a lot of like weird kicks, weird punches that don't really do a lot normally.

"But if he can crack you with that right hand straight down the pipe, you're in trouble. So that's what I'm gonna try and stay away from. He has decent takedown defense, decent jiu jitsu. So yeah, I think I'm going to try and pressure him. Hit him with some good shots, take him down, choke him out."

Check Reinier de Ridder's breakdown of the UFC 311 Kevin Holland bout below

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Kevin Holland and RDR's mutual opponent in MMA

Kevin Holland and Reinier de Ridder have had strong runs within the sport of mixed martial arts, with the two having a mutual adversary between them. Holland was the first to clash with this combatant, and the bout took place in Mar. 2019 at UFC on ESPN 2. Gerald Meerschaert is the fighter in question, and he engaged in a competitive back-and-forth affair against 'Trailblazer'.

The 32-year-old ended up getting the better of GM3 but did so with a narrow points victory as Holland won via split decision. Several years after that fight, Meerschaert would welcome de Ridder into the promotion as RDR made his UFC debut against GM3 in Nov. 2024.

In another competitive outing, Reinier de Ridder finished Gerald Meerschaert with an arm triangle choke less than two minutes into the third round of their UFC Fight Night contest. The California native has a chance to return to the win column against de Ridder after an injury-related loss Kevin Holland had to Roman Dolidze at UFC 307.

For RDR, he has a chance to put together back-to-back wins under the UFC umbrella and extend his overall MMA winning streak to three straight victories when the cage door closes behind him in the coming days at UFC 311.