Outside Source
It may not have been pretty, but Reinier de Ridder cleared another big hurdle on the way to a middleweight title shot.
In the main event of UFC on ABC 9 on Saturday in Abu Dhabi, the former One Championship two-division titleholder faced Robert Whittaker in a five-round affair. Having won his first three UFC bouts in impressive fashion, the 34-year-old Dutchman seemed poised to vault into title contention if he could get past the former champ.
“The Reaper” gave de Ridder fits immediately, stepping fearlessly into the pocket and blasting the taller man with clean one-twos. The difference in speed was stark, and while de Ridder clearly wished to bring his foe to the canvas, he was reduced to a caught kick and a long double-leg attempt, neither of which came close to succeeding. Outside of those few earnest takedown attempts, Round 1 largely consisted of de Ridder getting blistered at range or exchanging more evenly during tense clinch sequences. While the “Dutch Knight” was never completely routed and landed several good strikes of his own including some hard knees inside, it was firmly a Whittaker round.
Round 2 began with more of the same: Whittaker’s speed and precision appeared to be far too much for de Ridder to deal with, but de Ridder periodically coming back with just enough offense to keep things competitive. As in the first round, de Ridder’s most effective strikes were knees to the body, and it after one such blow that he secured his first real takedown. From there, de Ridder went to work, trying to pass Whittaker’s guard while landing short strikes and generally keeping the former champ in survival mode. He never managed a legitimate submission attempt, but it went down as a clear round for de Ridder.
De Ridder picked up where he left off in Round 3, hurting Whittaker with a punch and yet another knee in the opening seconds. As Whittaker staggered back, hurt, de Ridder overpursued his quarry and ran into an overhand right that leveled him. Whittaker pounced, dropping standing-to-ground punches on his fallen foe, but de Ridder survived and managed to return to his feet. With both men looking fatigued, the exchanges grew sloppier and more sporadic, but Whittaker seemed to be taking the fight over until de Ridder took him down at the midpoint of the round. From there “RDR” passed to side control, then briefly to mount. He remained in top position for the rest of the round, though without inflicting much damage.
It was a tired-looking pair of contenders that came out for the main event rounds, and de Ridder took advantage in Round 4, forcing the fight into the clinch against the fence, nullifying Whittaker’s speed advantage and giving him chances to land more of the knees that had represented most of his striking offense to that point. De Ridder’s first takedown attempt, a botched throw, led to Whittaker taking his back, but the exhausted Aussie declined to press the issue. By the final 90 seconds of the round, they were reduced to swinging single punches at one another, both of them landing as often as not.
That carried over to the final frame, where de Ridder drove Whittaker into the fence for an extended clinch sequence where neither man scored much, but de Ridder was measurably more effective. Whittaker remained effective in bursts, such as when he extricated himself from a single-leg takedown in space by hopping and limp-legging, but grew inert for long stretches. It was likely anyone’s round, and anyone’s fight, with a minute and a half to go, when they reset near the middle of the Octagon. Whittaker scored with a few punches before yet again getting pushed to the fence for some short knees. The round expired with neither man truly having put a stamp on it.
Faced with several individually hard rounds to score, the judges turned in a split verdict in favor of de Ridder via 48-47, 48-47 and 47-48 scores. His fourth straight win since joining the UFC left the Dutchman at the very least within shouting distance of a title shot. Whittaker, having lost back-to-back fights for the first time since moving up to the middleweight division over a decade ago, finds his path back to the top of the division he once ruled more daunting than ever.
Yan Outclasses McGhee
In the bantamweight co-main event, Petr Yan (19-5, 11-4 UFC) gave Marcus McGhee (10-2, 4-1 UFC) a classic “there are levels to this stuff” object lesson, outboxing and outfoxing his foe in increasingly dominant fashion across three rounds.
Defying his reputation as a slow starter, Yan pressed the issue quickly in Round 1, repeatedly marching McGhee to the fence and exchanging sharp two- and three-piece combinations. By the midpoint of the first frame, “No Mercy” had spilled McGhee with a low kick and stung him with a clean left hook. McGhee struggled with Yan’s frequent stance changes but never let the action get away from him, however, and he landed several solid combinations of his own late in the round as well as kicks to both of Yan’s legs.
McGhee came out strong in Round 2, using some stance-switching of his own and catching Yan with some hard one-twos that forced him to shell up and back off. Yan came alive, however, and began hurting McGhee with clean punches 90 seconds into the round. Once McGhee began reacting to the damage, Yan opened up even further, landing a flying knee and more straights and crosses from both sides. McGhee responded by making things messy, charging forward and swinging hard. He landed several good punches and kicks of his own over the final minute of Round 2, but Yan had clearly taken over.
Yan continued to pull away in the final round, cutting off the cage with greater and greater ease, flurrying on McGhee when he managed to corner him against the fence. McGhee did his best to disrupt the Russian, landing some solid low kicks and swinging hard hooks. Yan launched a surprise takedown attempt near the midpoint of the round, transitioned to a standing back take and made life miserable for his opponent with knees and short punches from behind for the next several minutes. McGhee managed to avoid being taken down or absorbing too much damage through this ordeal, but offered no offense of his own and thus fell further and further behind. With under a minute to go, Yan tripped McGhee to the canvas, locked up a kimura and looked for a last-second submission, but McGhee escaped to hear the horn. Yan prevailed via unanimous scores of 29-28, reaffirming his place as a Top 5 talent and a factor in the bantamweight title picture, while McGhee’s first UFC loss left the promotion with plenty of options for his next booking.
“Shara Bullet” Survives Busted Nose, Outlasts Barriault
Sharabutdin Magomedov (16-1) redeemed his first UFC loss, picking up a well-deserved decision over Marc-Andre Barriault (17-10, 1 NC), even if he had to survive some adversity along the way. Entering the bout as the biggest betting favorite on the card at -600, and having lost to Michael Page in his last appearance, “Shara Bullet” appeared to be set up for a highlight-reel return to form.
Things got off to the expected start, with “Shara Bullet” sticking, moving and generally keeping Barriault looking a step behind throughout Round 1. The second round got off to a similar start, and Magomedov seemed to be pulling further ahead if anything, when Barriault changed the fight in an instant. Catching Magomedov on the way in with a huge right hand, Barriault sent the Dagestani careening back into the fence with a badly smashed nose. Barriault kept up the pressure, following Magomedov to the cage and throwing punches as blood poured from the busted beak. Magomedov survived, recovered and was giving as good as he got by the time the horn sounded, and even if the round as a whole went in the Canadian’s favor, the momentum had shifted.
Magomedov came out for the final round looking renewed, while Barriault appeared to be slow to shake off the damage he had sustained in the final seconds of Round 2. “Shara Bullet” hurt his foe numerous times with knees on the inside and clean punch combinations at range, and sat him down with a final knee in the closing seconds. Barriault survived to hear the horn, but Magomedov had put his stamp on the round. The judges scored the bout in his favor unanimously, via identical 30-27 tallies, bringing his record to 5-1 in the UFC, while “Power Bar” fell to 6-9 with one no contest.
Almabayev Grinds Out Ochoa
Asu Almabayev (22-3, 5-1 UFC) righted the ship, turning aside short-notice opponent Jose Ochoa by unanimous decision in their flyweight main card bout. Ochoa, who stepped up on two weeks’ notice when Ramazonbek Temirov withdrew due to a drug test failure, gave “Zulfikhar” all he could handle across three competitive rounds. Much of the fight revolved around Almabayev’s dogged efforts to bring the fight to the ground. Ochoa’s takedown defense was generally strong, but Almabayev’s persistence led to success at least once in each round, and for the time they were there, he got the better of things.
All three rounds were individually competitive, but the official scores of 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28 seemed to reflect the general reality of the fight. The win put Almabayev back on track after his March loss to Manel Kape and elevated his UFC tally to 5-1; Ochoa fell to 1-2 in the UFC.
Guskov Plunks Krylov
In the main card opener, Bogdan Guskov (18-3) continued his march up the light heavyweight ladder, lancing Nikita Krylov (30-11) with a beautiful counter right hand late in the first round. Both men had their moments in a hard-swinging, defense-optional scrap, but the first seriously damaging strike of the round was also the last: Guskov caught Krylov on the way in with a straight right to the temple, dropping him in the middle of the Octagon. Guskov wasted no time swarming with punches as Krylov tried to grab a leg and either counterattack or recover. Referee Marc Goddard gave Krylov ample time to turn his fortunes around, but as he wilted under the onslaught, was forced to halt the bout at 4:18 of Round 1.
The win, Guskov’s fourth straight since his short-notice loss to Volkan Oezdemir in 2023, advanced his UFC record to 4-1 and left him in a position to call for a Top 10 opponent in his next outing. Krylov fell to 11-9 in the UFC across two separate stints with the promotion, 5-6 since rejoining just under seven years ago.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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