The University of Iowa wrestling program has delivered on expectations by sending a care package to Reinier de Ridder.
De Ridder, who defeated Bo Nickal in their recent UFC matchup, had anticipated receiving items from the Hawkeyes following his victory. “Yeah I expect it,” De Ridder told Full Send MMA after his win when asked if he expected a care package from Iowa. “I’ll leave my address afterwards here.”
The Dutch fighter had already shown his allegiance by sporting an Iowa shirt ahead of his bout against Nickal, a former Penn State wrestling standout. Following through on the gesture, Iowa sent De Ridder shirts and a hat featuring the Iowa wrestling logo, as well as apparel representing the Hawkeye Wrestling Club, the in-house Regional Training Center that supports senior-level athletes pursuing Olympic dreams.
During their contest, Nickal and De Ridder engaged in several grappling exchanges throughout the first round and into the second. While Nickal managed to secure a takedown, De Ridder’s grappling expertise was evident as he executed a reversal and controlled Nickal from the top position before setting up for the technical knockout in the second round. The finishing sequence included several knees to the body before the final decisive blow.
The loss was Nickal’s first professional setback, bringing his MMA record to 7-1 overall and 4-1 in the UFC. De Ridder entered the contest ranked No. 13 in the middleweight division, representing Nickal’s first ranked opponent.
“My initial reaction was like, I want to go right away. Like, let’s go, you know, get me back in there,” Nickal reflected on his podcast, Nickals and Dimes. “Which is just the competitor in me, right? So I have to balance that with being smart and strategic and further figuring out what’s actually best. We all saw this last fight, and you could tell, like, those guys are definitely a size up relative to me. They’re quite a bit bigger, and it’s just physics and bio mechanics at that point… I don’t think that’s why I lost the fight, but I think that’ll do me some good to put on some size.”
Nickal added, “So bulk up season, we’re going back on the bulk. Gonna get a few extra lifts in, get big and then, yeah, other than that, like, I just want to keep getting better at fighting. And I think there’s a lot of different ways that I could do that, a lot of different things, people that I could go to to improve. And my natural instinct is to get back in there right away. But I don’t know, we’ll see I’m focused on the bulk up and I’m definitely gonna get another fight by the end of the year, like, there’s no doubt in my mind that I’ll fight again in 2025.”
The gesture from Iowa Wrestling highlights the interconnected nature of combat sports communities, even when competitive rivalries exist.
