Reinier de Ridder says that people have been too quick to turn on Bo Nickal following his first professional mixed martial arts defeat last weekend.

Dutchman De Ridder, a former ONE Championship two-division titleholder, defeated the Penn State wrestling icon and (relative) MMA neophyte by second-round TKO in the co-main event of the UFC’s fight card in Iowa last weekend, halting for now a hype train which had been rolling since Nickal graduated to the main roster after a two-fight stint on the ‘Contender Series.’

De Ridder, who is predominantly known for his grappling prowess, found success in the clinch, landing several knees and short strikes to which Nickal had no remedy throughout — but De Ridder says that the backlash against Nickal that has appeared online doesn’t match his skillset.

“I’ve been in this position. I’ve lost. I’ve lost terribly, like pretty much basically like this fight, I lost as well,” De Ridder told MMA Fighting.

“Now it’s up to him to see if this can be a negative thing or a positive thing. He can make this into a positive thing. He can look at this as being a big lesson and something he’s going to grow [from] or he can look at this and say that it was a fluke and I just wasn’t myself that day and f*ck it. But I think if you see how far he’s already gotten in this game, how far he’s gone in wrestling, you can’t have a weak mindset.

“He’s a very strong guy. He’s a very strong individual, and I think he’s going to take some time off from planning a fight, and we’ll see him back in six months, and he’s going to tear through a lot of guys.

“I’m just happy I got a chance to fight him now and not in three years,” De Ridder added. “In three years, he’s going to be a f*cking killer. He’s going to run through everybody.”