Robert Whittaker vs. Reinier de Ridder Predictions

The main event of the UFC Fight Night Abu Dhabi card is an absolute banger. The middleweight bout between Robert Whittaker and Reinier de Ridder is sure to provide us with excitement, lots of drama, and an interesting result. These two know how to fight, but are at opposite ends of their career, making this fight highly intriguing as some veterans have recently been able to play spoiler to high-flying contenders. 

It is exactly what this fight is. Reinier de Ridder comes in as one of the most exciting middleweight prospects in the division. He has had three fights in the UFC, all wins and, more importantly, all finishes. Even though he is a ground specialist, which allowed him to earn submission wins against Gerald Meerschaert and Kevin Holland, he knows how to stand and bang, which we saw when he KOed Bo Nickal with knees in his very last fight. 

On the opposite end of the octagon is the gritty Bobby Knuckles. Robert Whittaker is not just a fan favourite because he is as tough as nails, he is overall a wonderful guy and has been a respected champion. However, he is going a bit back and forth at the moment. He is 3-3 in his last six fights, and even though he turned back the clock with a KO win against Ikram Aliskerov, he was easily dispatched by Khamzat Chimaev and ultimately finished thanks to a face crank in just 3:34. 

I believe that we are going to be getting the Whittaker that fought against Ikram and not the one that we saw against Khamzat. Unfortunately, I don’t think that the outcome is going to be the same. de Ridder is really good and extremely good on the ground. Once he has you down, he probably gets you there. He is going to try to impose his ground game on Whittaker which almost always results in a submission win for de Ridder. So I remain firm on this one, the Dutch Knight to win by submission.