Robert Whittaker’s return to the octagon after a gruesome injury last October ended in disappointment as he lost a split decision to Reinier De Ridder.
Former UFC middleweight champion Whittaker had his teeth smashed in, literally, by Khamzat Chimaev last time out at UFC 308 in October. But within less than a year, he came back to face the fast-rising former ONE FC champion De Ridder.
Following a knockout win over Bo Nickal, the Dutchman took on arguably the toughest test of his career against ‘The Reaper’; his first UFC champion. And he came through, just about, overcoming a massive knockdown.
Robert Whittaker vs Reinier De Ridder UFC Abu Dhabi result
Both Robert Whittaker and Reinier De Ridder knew that a win over the other would put them in solid stead for a world title shot. ‘RDR’ won his first three octagon outings after leaving ONE Championship, and was clearly on the rise, while the Australian just wanted one more run at gold.
Whittaker immediately ran across and landed a good shot on De Ridder early, but was quickly caught by the legs and the pair headed into a clinch. When they did break apart, the blitz from the Aussie saw him cut his rival above the eye, drawing first blood.
Despite a monstrous size difference that looked almost farcical at times, Whittaker was well able to get inside and hurt the Dutchman. Indeed, he looked as much faster as De Ridder looked bigger when they exchanged on the feet early.
A big knee from De Ridder was his best shot as he continued to press for a takedown that wouldn’t come in the opening round. The second opened with the Dutchman landing a solid shot after Whittaker slipped, before regular service resumed.
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
Ultimately, by the halfway point of round two De Ridder realized he was going to need to strike and did so relatively well, landing a couple of big knees and finally getting Whittaker down. The Aussie looked to be bleeding from the mouth as they got to the end of round two with the former ONE FC champ on top.
As the third began, De Ridder was starting to take control on the feet, but he was then caught with a wild counter right that dropped him. Whittaker immediately pushed for the finish with ground and pound, but De Ridder made his way back up.
With Whittaker wearing the blood from round two, he began to land massive shots that wobbled De Ridder. But the Dutchman mercifully got the double leg, getting a chance to take control again, making it a tough round to score even though he had been brutally dropped and hurt.
Heading into the championship rounds, both men’s fatigue really began to show as the pace slowed considerably from the initial three. De Ridder struggled to deal with Whittaker’s jab, but avoided the big shots and even landed some of his own.
By the fifth, it became a battle of who was less exhausted by the Abu Dhabi heat and the pace of the early rounds. It looked as though that may be De Ridder, until the final 90 seconds when Whittaker seemed to have found a second wind.
The fight went the distance and headed to the scorecards, where the judges awarded the split decision to Reinier De Ridder. He won 48-47 on two cards, while Whittaker took the other by the same score.
Robert Whittaker stays motivated by prospect of Dricus Du Plessis rematch
Heading into Saturday’s main event, Robert Whittaker was clear about his motivations for continuing after a storied 16-year career. He knew that a win over De Ridder might be his ticket to a rematch with Dricus Du Plessis, whom he felt he could beat and win the belt once again.
“I’d like to fight him again,” Whittaker told Ariel Helwani of Du Plessis. “That would be the icing on the cake. Honestly, I do think I’m better than him. I think I’m better than everybody, even when I lose, right? It’s mainly that in our first pairing, I let myself down in that fight, and I want to correct that.
“I didn’t have the right headspace to go and beat him. I want to correct that more than any of my other losses. That’s the fight I didn’t like feeling like that.”