Reinier
de Ridder doesn’t want to have to go through Robert
Whittaker again.
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.