Athletes
Reinier de Ridder Is Coming For The Finish
Netherlands’ Reinier De Ridder Wants To Launch Himself Into The Middleweight Title Picture With A Statement-Making Win Over Robert Whittaker In Abu Dhabi
Sure, Reinier de Ridder is fighting in his first UFC main event in just his fourth trip to the Octagon.
And sure, that fight is coming against a former champion in Robert Whittaker who has spent the better part of the last decade at the top of the middleweight division.
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But “RdR” doesn’t care. He isn’t concerned with pacing himself for a potential 25-minute fight against one of the best middleweights of this era. He wants to fight his fight and, for a man who has only fought past the third round once and to the scorecards twice, that means getting his job done early on July 26.
“F*** the championship rounds,” de Ridder told UFC.com. “I want to finish this guy.”
Granted, de Ridder didn’t take the usual path to the mixed martial arts leader. The Dutchman built his reputation under the ONE Championship banner, where he won and defended titles in the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions.
Fighting in that kind of spotlight with the type of pressure a title fight presents is something irreplaceable, and although a UFC main event presents its own kind of challenges and attention, de Ridder was happy to go through what he did in another promotion.
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“I was not ready for this five years ago,” he said. “I'm very, very happy I've had that experience a little bit on a smaller scale, that I've been able to grow as a person before coming here. So, maybe it all works out.”
At UFC Fight Night: Whittaker vs de Ridder, the 34-year-old has the chance to catapult himself into the middleweight title picture. The timing is pretty ideal, too, since the belt goes back up for grabs when champion Dricus Du Plessis defends his throne against Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 319 in Chicago on August 16.
Before he looks ahead to a chance at UFC gold, though, he knows he has a tall task in “The Reaper.” The fellow 34-year-old is coming off a disappointing first-round submission loss to Chimaev, but, before that, he put together impressive wins over Paulo Costa and Ikram Aliskerov.
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Although Whittaker hasn’t held the title since 2019 and hasn’t competed for the belt since 2022, when he lost his rematch to Israel Adesanya, de Ridder knows Whittaker remains the cream of the middleweight crop.
“He's been at the top. He's lost it all, but he's still there,” de Ridder said. “That's the most special thing about him, to be honest. A lot of guys, when they reach the top and then they fall off a little bit, they fall off far. But he has not at all. He's still there (and) still is dangerous, as always.”
De Ridder is enjoying the perks that come with the main event slot, which include seeing his face plastered all over the place in the lead-up to the bout, but he also knows none of that matters if he doesn’t get his hand raised on fight night.
Anyone fighting Whittaker understands the threats “Bobby Knuckles” brings to the fight. De Ridder said he is particular mindful of the way Whittaker likes to make reads and pounce during a pause in the action. For de Ridder, he’ll have his focus on maintaining pressure to minimize any opportunities for Whittaker to blitz him. In general, de Ridder isn’t shy about sharing how he views it all going down when they are in the Octagon.
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“I see myself, pressing forward, putting a lot of pressure on him early,” he said. “I see him responding with quick kicks, trying to blitz. I'm going to pressure him early, hand-fight, hit him with some good long-range stuff, then hopefully hit him with some close-range stuff. Take him down, choke him out. That's the plan.
As far as his own championship aspirations, de Ridder finds points of interest facing either du Plessis or Chimaev, but with Nassourdine Imavov and Caio Borralho facing off in a presumptive No. 1 contender fight on September 6 in Paris, he might need to pull off something special to leapfrog the winner of that bout.
The fight game is one where luck and timing each play parts, and it’s the fighter’s job to make luck and timing work in their favor. For de Ridder, that means putting Whittaker away, which is right up de Ridder’s alley.
“The most important thing this fight is, I need to finish Rob,” he said. “To have a chance to fight for the title, I need to finish him, so that's what I'm coming for.”
UFC Fight Night: Whittaker vs De Ridder took place live from Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi on July 26, 2025. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!
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