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The Dutchman is scheduled to make his Ultimate Fighting Championship light heavyweight debut against Roman Dolidze at UFC Sacramento on Aug. 22. Meanwhile, de Ridder’s former foe Whittaker also recently moved up to light heavyweight and the former One Championship two-weight titleholder doesn’t want to run it back with the former UFC champ anytime soon.
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Reinier de Ridder explains why his win over Robert Whittaker took so much out of him
While de Ridder edged a narrow split decision win over Whittaker at middleweight last year, it wasn’t an easy outing for “The Dutch Knight.” He says he was surprised by Whittaker’s speed, especially with the jab-cross, and admits that the fight took a lot out of him, forcing him to dig deep to get the win.
“I hope that they don’t propose that [rematch] for now,” de Ridder said at UFC Sacramento media day. “[Whittaker] is still so f*cking quick. In the fight we had the thing that really amazed me was how quick he was with the 1-2 every time. That fight really took a lot out of me. I had to dig deep to win that fight. So, if I can avoid that for a while, I’ll be really happy.”
After losing to 185-pound contenders Brendan Allen and Caio Borralho, de Ridder committed to a move up to light heavyweight. Meanwhile, Whittaker moved up to 205 pounds after losing to Khamzat Chimaev and de Ridder, scoring a stoppage win over Nikita Krylov.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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