{"id":861680,"date":"2026-08-20T06:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T06:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/861680\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T06:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T06:00:09","slug":"de-ridder-hopes-to-avoid-whittaker-rematch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/861680\/","title":{"rendered":"De Ridder Hopes To Avoid Whittaker Rematch"},"content":{"rendered":"

This author receives a commission through recommended links in this content. See our affiliate disclosure<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reinier de Ridder wants nothing to do with Robert Whittaker at heavyweight<\/a>\/” class=”internal-link text-bone underline decoration-ash\/30 hover:decoration-gold underline-offset-2″>light heavyweight.<\/p>\n

The former One Championship two-division titleholder faces Roman Dolidze at UFC Sacramento on Saturday in his 205-pound debut. Whittaker also recently moved up a weight class, but de Ridder told reporters he hopes to avoid a rematch with the Australian.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udf9f\ufe0f Get tickets: Buy tickets to UFC Sacramento on Ticketmaster \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n

Why De Ridder Wants Distance From Whittaker<\/p>\n

De Ridder took a split decision over Whittaker at middleweight<\/a> last year, but the fight left a mark. Per Sherdog, he said Whittaker’s jab-cross speed caught him off guard and forced him to empty the tank for the win. “The thing that really amazed me was how quick he was with the 1-2 every time,” de Ridder said at UFC Sacramento media day. “That fight really took a lot out of me. I had to dig deep to win that fight.”<\/p>\n

Both fighters struggled at middleweight after their clash. De Ridder dropped back-to-back decisions to Brendan Allen and Caio Borralho before committing to heavyweight<\/a>\/” class=”internal-link text-bone underline decoration-ash\/30 hover:decoration-gold underline-offset-2″>light heavyweight. Whittaker moved up following losses to Khamzat Chimaev<\/a> and de Ridder, stopping Nikita Krylov in his 205-pound debut.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udf9f\ufe0f Get tickets: Buy tickets to UFC Sacramento on Ticketmaster \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n

De Ridder and Dolidze weigh in Friday ahead of Saturday’s card in Sacramento.<\/p>\n

Reported via:<\/p>\n

Sherdog<\/a> \u2014 Reinier de Ridder hopes to avoid Robert Whittaker rematch \u2018for now\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This author receives a commission through recommended links in this content. See our affiliate disclosure. Reinier de Ridder…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":861681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-861680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=861680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/861681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}