The MMA Draw Newsletter

The MMA Draw Newsletter

Share this post

The MMA Draw Newsletter
The MMA Draw Newsletter
UFC Abu Dhabi: Whittaker vs. De Ridder picks and predictions

UFC Abu Dhabi: Whittaker vs. De Ridder picks and predictions

See who we think will win at the Etihad Arena this weekend.

Tim Bissell's avatar
Tim Bissell
Jul 25, 2025
∙ Paid
8

Share this post

The MMA Draw Newsletter
The MMA Draw Newsletter
UFC Abu Dhabi: Whittaker vs. De Ridder picks and predictions
1
2
Share
A Chris Rini classic.

The UFC heads to one of its favourite haunts this weekend, the venue formerly (and spuriously) named Fight Island. This weekend, Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Arena will feature Robert Whittaker vs. Reinier de Ridder in the main event, with the former UFC champ and former ONE champ battling it out near the top of the middleweight rankings.

The co-main event is Petr Yan versus *checks notes Marcus McGhee. The event also has Shara-Bullet versus Power Bar (that’s Sharabutdin Magomedov vs. Marc-Andre Barriault for any rubes out there) and Bryce ‘I wanna go fishing with Hitler’ Mitchell versus Said ‘Not that’ Nurmagomedov.

It’s a kinda OK, not bad card, really. That’s probably enough to keep this brand of oil money rolling in.

We’ve poured over the tape and tapology records on these fights and done our best to pick winners.

Last week’s UFC 318 card saw a lot of undercards win, that threw most of us through a bit of a loop. Not me, though! I went 14-5 last week and was the only one to pick Michael Johnson and Paulo Costa on the main card. I did miss on my lock pick, though, with Dan Ige managing to be more underwhelming than a 38 year-old Patricio Pitbull. Thankfully, that miss didn’t cost me. I’m still holding onto the top spot in our standings, Kristen is right on my tail, though!

Scroll down to see who we are picking this week, including our ‘locks’ (the picks we are extra confident in).

If you’re putting bets down this weekend, please do so responsibly.

Leader board


Support the MMA Draw, and independent combat sports journalism, with a paid subscription today!


Robert Whittaker (-170) vs. Reinier de Ridder (+140)

Miguel Class: Whittaker seems to be getting at that point in his career where he’ll start losing more and more matchups that should heavily favor him, but this should be a stylistic layup. We still haven’t seen Whittaker thoroughly outwrestled by anyone other than Chimaev (unless you count that throw DDP hit on him) and RDR, despite…

This post is for paid subscribers

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 BE Presents Publishing Inc
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture

Share