Robert Whittaker has suffered back-to-back losses for the first time in the middleweight, after dropping a split decision to Reinier De Ridder.
Robert Whittaker (26-9 MMA) and Reinier de Ridder (21-2 MMA) clashed in today’s headliner at ABC 9 event in ABU DHABI.
Whittaker participated in the competition with De Hoop to return to the win -column, after a loss of submission to Khamzat Chimaev in his most earlier effort last October at UFC 308.
In the meantime, Reinier de Ridder came to UFC Abu Dhabi with a four-fog winning series, with his most recent victory via TKO over very promoted prospect Bo Nickal.
Despite a strong opening round and then later falling and almost Reinier de Ridder on the ground in round three, Robert Whittaker finally fell short in his search to avoid back-to-back losses for the first time in his middleweight dating period. After twenty -five minutes back and forth, only one of the three judges had ‘The Reaper’ on their respective score cards, which resulted in a split decision gain for ‘RDR’.
It was a tough pill for the former UFC Middleweight Champion in Robert Whittaker, because he seemed to be on the eve of the victory after winning that big knockdown in round 3.
In the immediate aftermath of his defeat against De Ridder, Robert Whittaker went to the microphone and shared the following feelings from the Octagon.
‘Ahh, nice butt to be honest. He did what he said he was going to do. I thought I had checked all the boxes, but the pressure (he brought) was a lot. He has a lot of pressure and many skills. I mentioned it before; He has a certain way of fighting.
Today’s loss is only the second time that Robert Whittaker has dropped back-to-back attacks during his UFC career. The first time already came back in 2014 when he fought at Welterweight and lost to Stephen Thompson and Court McGee respectively.
Who would you like to see Whittaker fight?
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