The latest UFC Fight Night event was held in Abu Dhabi and was headlined by a middleweight clash between Robert Whittaker and Reinier De Ridder.

Reinier de Ridder picked up the biggest win of his career on Saturday when he took a hard-fought split decision over former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker in the main event of UFC Fight Night from Abu Dhabi.

It was a grueling and competitive fight, but de Ridder felt comfortable in winning three out of the five rounds they competed in. He was confident all three judges would agree with him, however, only two judges did,

What does Reinier de Ridder's win over Robert Whittaker mean for the middleweight division? Brett Okamoto provides his takeaways from UFC Fight Night: Whittaker vs. de Ridder.

A middleweight clash with title implications headlines UFC Fight Night in Abu Dhabi. Former UFC champion Robert Whittaker and former two-division ONE Championship king Reinier de Ridder fight weeks before a 185-pound title fight at UFC 319.

The MMA community reacted to Reinier de Ridder's split decision over Robert Whittaker at UFC Abu Dhabi – with some questioning the result.

"We would have crossed that bridge when we got there," Robert Whittaker smirked when asked whether he had contingencies in place in case things didn’t exactly go according to plan with Israel Adesanya.