Robert Whittaker expects Reinier de Ridder to grapple him early
Given that Whittaker is confident he’s the better striker, he expects de Ridder to try and grapple him early.
However, Whittaker believes he will be able to keep it standing, and even if it hits the ground, he’s confident in his skills.
“He’s going to try to take me down straight away I envision,” Whittaker said. “He’s got good striking, good stand up. But he understands where my strengths are, he understands where his strengths may lie and I think he’ll want to go to the ground to utilize that.”
Robert Whittaker enters the UFC Abu Dhabi main event as the betting favorite to beat Reinier de Ridder to return to the win column.
Whittaker is currently ranked fifth at middleweight and is coming off the loss to Chimaev. Before that, he beat Ikram Aliskerov by KO and Paulo Costa by decision.