{"id":865208,"date":"2025-08-14T21:17:05","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T02:17:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/14\/makes-no-sense-fans-rip-judges-scorecards-for-robert-whittaker-vs-reinier-de-ridder-at-ufc-abu-dhabi\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T21:17:05","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T02:17:05","slug":"makes-no-sense-fans-rip-judges-scorecards-for-robert-whittaker-vs-reinier-de-ridder-at-ufc-abu-dhabi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/14\/makes-no-sense-fans-rip-judges-scorecards-for-robert-whittaker-vs-reinier-de-ridder-at-ufc-abu-dhabi\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Makes no sense\u2019 \u2026 Fans rip judges\u2019 scorecards for Robert Whittaker vs. Reinier de Ridder at UFC Abu Dhabi"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<article id=\"post-229055\">\n<p><strong>The main event of UFC Abu Dhabi ended with some controversy.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Former ONE two-division champion <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/tag\/reinier-de-ridder\/\">Reinier de Ridder<\/a> nearly got knocked out in his first UFC headliner against <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/tag\/robert-whittaker\">Robert Whittaker<\/a>. The co-main event of the evening saw former bantamweight champion <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/2025\/07\/26\/former-champ-petr-yan-hands-sean-omalleys-teammate-first-ufc-loss-calls-for-title-fight-winner\/\">Petr Yan getting his hand raised over Marcus McGhee<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<p>Former <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/tag\/ufc\">UFC<\/a> middleweight champion Whittaker dropped de Ridder in round 3 of their five-round fight, but de Ridder survived to see the distance.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/2025\/07\/26\/robert-whittaker-vs-reinier-de-ridder-ufc-abu-dhabi-result-ufc-newcomer-lands-biggest-career-win\/\">de Ridder was awarded the split decision victory<\/a>, with two out of the three judges scoring rounds 2, 4, and 5 for \u2018RDR\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>However, not everybody agreed with the judges.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><svg width=\"20\" height=\"20\"><use href=\"http:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/#list-arrow-svg\" \/><\/svg><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/2025\/07\/26\/health-update-comes-back-for-disfigured-ufc-star-who-got-dropped-eight-times-in-one-fight\/\">Health update comes back for disfigured UFC star who got dropped eight times in one fight<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure>\n<div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\"  src=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2227159384-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Robert Whittaker and Reinier De Ridder react to decision at UFC Abu Dhabi\" ><\/p>\n<\/div><figcaption title=\"ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - JULY 26: Reinier de Ridder of The Netherlands reacts after a split-decision victory against Robert Whittaker of New Zealand in a middleweight fight during the UFC Fight Night event at Etihad Arena on July 26, 2025 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Chris Unger\/Zuffa LLC)\">Photo by Chris Unger\/Zuffa LLC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Fans react to Robert Whittaker vs. Reinier de Ridder decision<\/h2>\n<p>Following de Ridder\u2019s victory, the UFC shared the official scorecards.<\/p>\n<p>Mike Bell was the dissenting judge, who gave Whittaker rounds 1, 3, and 4.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRDR did not win that 5th round wtf,\u201d one fan wrote on X.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo we just gonna award hugging on the cage with no damage? SMH.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRound 1, 3, and 5 were Robert\u2019s. The sport is flawed because of the scoring system,\u201d another fan wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot one judge gave rob round 5 despite stuffing every takedown and out striking de Ridder, STOPPING TAKEDOWNS HAS TO BE ADDED TO THE SCORING CRITERIA,\u201d a fan complained.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had Rob up. Very close fight tho\u2026\u201d another fan said.<\/p>\n<h2>Reinier de Ridder on who he wants next after fourth-straight UFC win<\/h2>\n<p>De Ridder isn\u2019t far off from a third world title in the UFC.<\/p>\n<p>With a win over Whittaker, the former ONE two-division champion should be entering the middleweight top-5 come Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Who does \u2018RDR\u2019 want to fight next?<\/p>\n<p>The Dutch fighter says he\u2019d like the winner of champion <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/tag\/dricus-du-plessis\">Dricus du Plessis<\/a> vs. <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/tag\/khamzat-chimaev\">Khamzat Chimaev<\/a>\u2014the next title fight at <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/tag\/ufc-319\">UFC 319<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>If not, de Ridder mentioned former champion <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/tag\/israel-adesanya\">Israel Adesanya<\/a> as a potential opponent on the UFC Abu Dhabi post-fight show.<\/p>\n<p>De Ridder said Adesanya could make for a great first title defense as well.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> Christopher De Santiago<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/2025\/07\/26\/makes-no-sense-fans-rip-judges-scorecards-for-robert-whittaker-vs-reinier-de-ridder-at-ufc-abu-dhabi\/\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The main event of UFC Abu Dhabi ended with some controversy. Former ONE two-division champion Reinier de Ridder nearly got knocked out in his first UFC headliner against Robert Whittaker. The co-main event of the evening saw former bantamweight champion Petr Yan getting his hand raised over Marcus McGhee. Former UFC middleweight champion Whittaker dropped<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":865209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[397,22106],"tags":[6605,11786],"class_list":{"0":"post-865208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-makes","8":"category-sense","9":"tag-makes","10":"tag-sense"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=865208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/865209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}