A high-stakes middleweight title fight between former interim and undisputed divisional champion, Robert Whittaker and recent UFC Des Moines co-main event victor, Reinier de Ridder is officially on deck to take headlining honors at UFC Fight Night Abu Dhabi on July 26. next.
Whittaker, a former undisputed middleweight titleholder, has been sidelined since he featured against the unbeaten, Khamzat Chimaev last October, suffering a devastating opening round face crank submission loss to the Chechen star.
de Ridder, a former two-weight ONE Championship titleholder, has made a big impression in his three Octagon starts so far. Racking up a pair of stoppages over both Gerald Meerschaert and Kevin Holland, the Dutch finisher turned in a dominant performance last month.
Co-headlining the promotion’s return to Iowa, de Ridder made incredibly light work of the hugely-touted unbeaten star, Bo Nickal, stopping the wrestling ace with a spectacular second round knee strike to the body as part of a lengthy barrage.
Robert Whittaker fights Reinier de Ridder in UFC Abu Dhabi main event
The promotion officially confirmed the pairing of Robert Whittaker and Reinier de Ridder on their social media this evening.
“Coming back with a BANG,” The UFC posted on their official X account. “@RobWhittakerMMA vs @ReinierdeRidder is the #UFCAbuDhabi main event!”
Seeing his impressive two-fight winning run halted with his submission loss to Chimaev, Whittaker had finished Ikram Aliskerov with a stunning first round knockout, to go with a hard-fought decision win over former title chaser, Paulo Costa.
During his pomp with ONE Championship, number thirteen ranked contender, de Ridder racked up notable victories over the likes of Aung La Nsang twice, as well as a win over Vitaly Bigdash. In just two career losses, de Ridder was twice finished by Anatoly Malykhin — losing both his divisional championships.
