Reinier de Ridder was admittedly surprised that one judge got it “completely wrong” when scoring his fight with Robert Whittaker at UFC Abu Dhabi.
De Ridder (21-2 MMA) and Whittaker (26-9 MMA) squared off in a pivotal middleweight main event this afternoon at UFC on ABC 6.
The contest proved to be a thrilling back and forth affair, with both fighters finding immense success at different portions of the contest. ‘The Reaper’ nearly finished the fight in the third round after dropping De Ridder and unleashing some solid ground and pound. However, ‘RDR’ showcased his resilience and was able to battle back to earn a strong finish to that same round of action. After closely contested frames in rounds four and five, the bout went to the judges’ scorecards for a decision.
Two of the judges scored the contest in favor of Reinier de Ridder (48-47) while the other had Robert Whittaker winning by that same score of 48-47.
While some fans and fellow fighters thought the former UFC middleweight champion in Whittaker should have got the nod, ‘RDR’ was not sharing the same sentiment of the bout being a close one during his post-fight interview.
The former two-division ONE Champion had the following to say about the judges’ scorecards and the fight with Whittaker itself:
“I was surprised one judge scored it completely wrong. I thought I had three rounds, at least. But, it is what it is. I hoped to finish him, and I didn’t. You never know what the judges make of it, but I’ll make sure to finish the next guy.
Reinier de Ridder continued and weighed in the potential of earning a title shot next:
“Hopefully, we’ll see what happens. There’s a lot of stuff going on in the middleweight division coming up in the next few months. But yeah, I’m a top five fighter in the world and I want to prove that I’m the best. I want to get back in the gym and work on all the stuff that happened in this fight. But first, I need some relaxation for a couple of weeks, I think.”
Who would you like to see De Ridder fight next?