De Ridder beats Whittaker in middleweight fight at UFC Abu Dhabi

Reinier de Ridder survives a brutal knockdown to triumph by divided determination against Robert Whittaker successful the main lawsuit astatine Etihad Arena successful the UAE.

Reinier de Ridder secured the biggest triumph of his Octagon vocation astatine UFC Abu Dhabi, narrowly securing a hard-fought divided determination implicit erstwhile middleweight champion Robert Whittaker astatine the Etihad Arena successful the United Arab Emirates.

De Ridder (21-2) earned his 3rd triumph of 2025 by defeating the Australian by divided decision; 2 of the 3 judges scored the 84kg (185-pound) bout 48-47 for de Ridder, portion a 3rd had it 48-47 for Whittaker.

“I don’t privation to combat similar this [Whittaker], man, this feline was excessively tough,” de Ridder said successful a post-fight interrogation connected Saturday. “I expected to instrumentality him down. He was truthful tough, truthful durable. Heavy f****** hands.”

The Dutch combatant had to past a brutal knockdown successful circular 3 erstwhile Whittaker dropped him with a close manus to the chin successful the opening minute.

De Ridder managed to past the attack, and consolidated his wide superiority successful strikes – de Ridder landed 169 successful total, compared with 100 for Whittaker, according to authoritative UFC statistic – and recovered to triumph the last 2 rounds by wearing down the 34-year-old with repeated knees to the assemblage and changeless grappling.

Throughout the five-round fight, determination was small to abstracted the pair. When the last doorbell sounded, the divided determination reflected the closeness of the contest.

De Ridder’s triumph was his 4th Ultimate Fighting Championship vocation victory. Whittaker (27-9) has present mislaid 2 consecutive and 3 of his 5 astir caller fights.

Following his victory, de Ridder, ranked 13th heading into the Whittaker fight, called for a rubric changeable against the victor of the middleweight title bout betwixt Dricus Du Plessis and Khamzat Chimaev astatine UFC 319 connected August 16.

“I privation to decorativeness a feline successful the archetypal round, truthful possibly it would beryllium amended if I fought Khamzat [Chimaev] oregon Dricus [Du Plessis]. Give maine my rubric shot.”

Whittaker, left, and de Ridder combat during the bout [Fatima Shbair/AP]

[Fatima Shbair/AP]

In the co-main event, erstwhile UFC bantamweight champion Petr Yan defeated Marcus McGhee by unanimous decision. Yan outpaced his hostile successful full strikes, important strikes, power and takedowns.

In the middleweight match, Shara Magomedov bounced backmost from his archetypal nonrecreational loss, which came against Michael Page successful February, to triumph implicit Marc-Andre Barriault by unanimous decision. Magomedov earned a 30-27 people from each 3 judges.

Source:

Al Jazeera and quality agencies