The most significant victory of the former two-division ONE Championship champion’s career came on Saturday at UFC Abu Dhabi, when he narrowly defeated Robert Whittaker by split decision at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
“RDR” was knocked out in the third round, but he was able to recover and get back into the fight. Ben Cartlidge and David Lethaby scored it 48-47 in his favor, while Mike Bell, the only judge who disagreed, scored it 48-47 for Whittaker.
Despite the fact that the contest was remarkably close and could have reasonably gone either way, Uncrowned’s live scorecard also had Whittaker winning 48-47.
After the fight, an exhausted de Ridder (21-2) lavished praise on Whittaker (26-9) and asked for Whittaker to fight the winner of the UFC middleweight title fight on Aug. 16 between Dricus du Plessis and Khamzat Chimaev, an undefeated challenger, at UFC 319. “He was amazing, man.
Man, I don’t want to fight this way. He was just too tough. It would be much better if I could defeat a man in the first round. So maybe [the winner of] Khamzat [vs.] Dricus follows. Give me a chance to fight for that strap; let’s go. Before UFC Abu Dhabi, Whittaker, 34, told Uncrowned that he wanted to use Saturday’s fight as a springboard for one more attempt at the middleweight title before calling it a career.
The scoring clearly irked the former champion, who is now 3-4 in his last seven fights. Whittaker acknowledged, “To be honest, pretty butt hurt.” “What’s up, you know? He carried out what he said he would do. Although I thought I had done everything right, there was a lot of pressure. It was just a lot of pressure because he has a lot of skills, and, as I mentioned earlier, he fights in a particular way.
I couldn’t really juggle too many loose ends. He did it more often than not, and he won. Congratulations to him.” “RDR” quickly made-up ground in the second round with a steady diet of step-in knees to the body and top control following a mid-round takedown.
De Ridder, 34, was in an early hole on Saturday as Whittaker dictated the pace of the opening round with a snapping jab and his trademark blitzes. In Round 3, Whittaker landed the most powerful punch of the evening, sending de Ridder plunging to the ground with a monster counter right hand that flush hit the Dutchman on the chin. “RDR” determinedly rallied and secured a takedown, riding out the remainder of the round from top control, despite Whittaker’s torrent of strikes.