Robert Whittaker claims Reinier de Ridder ‘hasn’t fought anyone like me’ ahead of UFC Abu Dhabi

Robert Whittaker believes Reinier de Ridder hasn’t fought anyone like him or with his skills.

Whittaker is set to headline UFC Abu Dhabi on Saturday against de Ridder in a pivotal middleweight bout. Whittaker is coming off a stoppage loss to Khamzat Chimaev and is looking to get back into the win column in a big way on Saturday.

Heading into the bout, Robert Whittaker is oozing with confidence as he doesn’t think Reinier de Ridder will be able to handle his skills.

“He hasn’t fought anyone like me. Landing my mitts and my getting my hands on him, that’s the plan. I’m fast. My striking I think is better than his. So I’ve got to find the holes, the opening and close them up,” Whittaker said at UFC Abu Dhabi media day.

Whittaker believes his striking will be too much for de Ridder as he expects to be faster and more powerful. With that, he’s confident he will eventually find the chin of de Ridder to get the win.

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.