Reinier de Ridder Establishes Himself as Title Contender After Defeating Robert Whittaker in the UFC
Reinier de Ridder, a prominent middleweight fighter, proved his worth as a title contender on Saturday, overcoming the renowned Robert Whittaker in an exciting match. De Ridder (21-2) achieved his fourth victory in the UFC, the third this year, by defeating Whittaker by split decision at the UFC Fight Night event in Abu Dhabi. Two of the three judges scored the fight 48-47 in favor of De Ridder, while the third saw it 48-47 for Whittaker.Despite the closeness in the scores, De Ridder outperformed Whittaker in almost every statistical category. According to UFC statistics, De Ridder landed 169 total strikes, compared to Whittaker’s 100. He also accumulated more than nine minutes of control time, either on the cage or on the ground. In the second round, he hurt Whittaker with knee strikes, causing him to bleed from the mouth and nose midway through the fight. Whittaker’s best moment came in the first minute of the third round, when he knocked De Ridder down with a right hand. Whittaker connected a perfect right hand to De Ridder’s chin and almost finished him with ground strikes immediately after. However, De Ridder managed to survive the offensive and win the last two rounds. De Ridder is known for his grappling ability, with 14 of his 21 professional victories by submission. He attempted takedowns at various points in the fight, but Whittaker defended 13 of 15 attempts well. In the end, it was De Ridder’s pressure and volume that broke Whittaker, more than his grappling skills. This has been a successful year for De Ridder, who is from the Netherlands but trains at Kill Cliff FC in Florida. He submitted Kevin Holland in January and then knocked out the promising Bo Nickal in May to win his first UFC main event. For Whittaker, 34, it marks the first time he has lost consecutive fights since 2013. He lost by submission to Khamzat Chimaev in October. Immediately after the fight, De Ridder requested a title opportunity against the winner of next month’s championship fight between Dricus Du Plessis and Chimaev at UFC 319. De Ridder entered Saturday’s fight ranked number 13 in the division. Whittaker was ranked number 5.I expected to take him down and submit him. It was incredible. Very tough, very resilient, with heavy hands.
Reinier de Ridder
I don’t want to fight anyone like this man again. It was too tough. I want to finish a guy in the first round, so maybe it would be better if I fought Khamzat or Dricus. Give me my title shot.
Reinier de Ridder
