Reinier de Ridder plans to make a statement that he’s the worthy next middleweight title contender at UFC Vancouver.

De Ridder is set to headline UFC Vancouver on Saturday against Brendan Allen in a pivotal fight at middleweight. Heading into the bout, de Ridder is a -210 favorite while the American is a +162 underdog on FanDuel.

Reinier de Ridder enters the bout with plenty of confidence as he doesn’t think Brendan Allen can match his grappling. He believes he’s sloppy at times and his cardio is also an issue, which will be a problem.

“His grappling is good but a bit sloppy at times,” de Ridder said to MMAFighting. “He falls off the back very frequently so maybe that’s something he’s adjusted by now. Has decent submissions, very opportunistic. He jumps on stuff when he sees it. His wrestling is decent. He has decent takedowns, decent takedown defense, not too great.

“But I think the thing that he lacks in the most, he kind of fades in the later rounds,” de Ridder added about Allen. “He starts very hard, very sharp and very good in the first round, he’s very dangerous as he did against [Nassourdine] Imavov. He got on top and controlled him basically the entire round, as he did in the ‘Fluffy’ fight, he did very well in the first round as well. But then in the later rounds, he kind of fades a little bit. He doesn’t even look that tired but something changes and he’s not the same guy in the later rounds. So we’ll see for this one.”

Reinier de Ridder plans to make a statement at UFC Vancouver

With de Ridder thinking Allen fades, he’s confident he will be able to bring him into deep waters and have success.

The goal at UFC Vancouver is to dominate Allen and finsih him to prove he deserves the next title shot.

“That’s the goal,” de Ridder said about putting Allen away. “If I can do that, I think it’s very clear who the top contender is.”

De Ridder enters the bout with a record of 21-2 and is coming off a decision win over Robert Whittaker.