Reinier de Ridder Establishes Himself as Title Contender After Defeating Robert Whittaker in the UFC
Reinier de Ridder proved his worth as a serious contender for the UFC middleweight title, after defeating Robert Whittaker in an exciting fight. De Ridder, with an outstanding performance, achieved his fourth victory in the UFC, marking his third triumph so far this year. The match, which took place at UFC Fight Night in Abu Dhabi, culminated in a split decision in favor of De Ridder (21-2). Two of the judges scored the fight 48-47 in favor of De Ridder, while the third judge awarded the victory to Whittaker with the same score.Despite the narrowness of the official results, De Ridder outperformed Whittaker in almost every statistic. According to UFC data, De Ridder landed 169 total strikes, compared to Whittaker’s 100. In addition, he accumulated more than nine minutes of control time, either against 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. 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 punch to De Ridder’s chin, and almost finished him with ground strikes. However, De Ridder managed to survive the offensive and won the last two rounds. De Ridder is known for his grappling ability, with 14 of his 21 professional victories obtained by submission. He attempted takedowns at various points in the fight, but Whittaker defended 13 of 15 attempts. Ultimately, it was De Ridder’s pressure and volume of strikes that overcame Whittaker, more so than his grappling skills. This has been a standout year for De Ridder, who hails from the Netherlands but trains at Kill Cliff FC in Florida. In January, he submitted Kevin Holland, and in May he knocked out the promising Bo Nickal, earning his first UFC main event. For Whittaker, 34, this marks the first time he has lost consecutive fights since 2013. Immediately after the fight, De Ridder requested a title opportunity against the winner of the match between Dricus Du Plessis and Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 319 next month. De Ridder entered Saturday’s fight ranked number 13 in the division. Whittaker was ranked number 5.I was expecting to take him to the ground and submit him. It was incredible. Very tough, very resilient, with very heavy hands.
Reinier de Ridder
I don’t want to fight anyone like this man again. It was too hard. I want to finish someone in the first round, so maybe it would be better if I fought Khamzat or Dricus. Give me my title shot.
Reinier de Ridder
