UFC Fight Night: Whittaker v de Ridder 6/1 Accumulator Tips, Best Bets & Predictions

UFC Fight Night: Whittaker v de Ridder 6/1 Accumulator Tips, Best Bets & Predictions

MMA
Starts Today, 18:00
Wednesday 23 July, 20251 min read
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Joshua Sia

Been writing freelance long-form UFC breakdowns for over 7 years now, covering every UFC event and predicting at an accuracy of just under 70% this year.

Below are my four best bets for Saturday's UFC Fight Night from Abu Dhabi. Whittaker De Ridder is the big one, but there's plenty of value on show across the card.


6/1 UFC Fight Night Accumulator Tips

Fixtures for: Saturday 26th July

Robert Whittaker (#5) v Reinier De Ridder (#13)

Middleweight

22:15

Over 2.5 Rounds

Robert Whittaker has always been one of those fighters who, if he survives the first wave of danger from a highly dangerous opponent, can thrive in later rounds and that’s what I believe is going to happen this weekend in Abu Dhabi. 

Whittaker is highly experienced in five round fights, you could perhaps call him a specialist in these Main Event spots as he does have excellent cardio and utilises a consistent output of footwork and flurries to get the job done. However, this time around, he is facing someone who is more than ready to take on a tough task, and I firmly believe that the first couple of rounds will be the most trivial of rounds for Whittaker.

See, De Ridder has that reach and height advantage and that naturally gives him an advantage when it comes to his dutch kickboxing style, he can jab at Whittaker at range and make it a challenge for Whittaker to approach for his own flurries. 

With that danger in mind though, I am somewhat certain that De Ridder is going to treat this fight like it’s a marathon and not a sprint, he’s going to be active in the first two rounds, sure, but he is very much experienced in the fight game and knows that if he depletes the gas tank early, a five round warrior like Whittaker will use that to his advantage and turn the momentum around completely.

So, with that in mind, and with my current reads being a bit of a back and forth bout with Whittaker using his flurries to enter and exit range whilst dealing damage to De Ridder, whilst trying to avoid De Ridders excellent clinch game (which is advantageous to De Ridder given his height and length), I expect this fight to go into the third round. 

Petr Yan (#3) v Marcus McGhee (#12)

Bantamweight

21:45

Fight to Go the Distance

Any time a fighter like Petr Yan fights, we all expect to see a big knockout or a sequence that leads to the referee stepping in, right? This was my initial thought when I saw this fight being made, but upon further tape review and keeping a keen eye on Marcus McGhee, I can’t help but see this fight go to the judges scorecards. 

Yan is a technician, he doesn’t throw a whole lot of volume out there and is capable of slowly dismantling his opponent with as few strikes as possible utilising his clinch strikes as well as his kicks to the torso and boxing combinations, his switch stance itself is going to give McGhee a few things to think about and I feel like due to these momentary pauses in action, it would only lead to the clock ticking by as both fighters, at least early on, gauge what their opponent is going to do before they do it. 

Once the second round starts though, I expect things to ramp up with both sides letting their strikes go. McGhee is really good at making fights dangerous to engage in, his ability to throw everything into each strike with incredible power and speed is going to give Yan a bit of a pause because I don’t think Yan wants to risk losing this fight and thus his momentum that he has been building for the last year. This is going to be a brilliant fight and I have very little doubt that it will lead to the scorecards.

Bryce Mitchell v Said Nurmagomedov

Bantamweight

19:40

Over 2.5 Rounds

Mitchell’s style of wrestling and grinding down his opponent on the ground is going to be in the spotlight here given the fact that Nurmagomedov doesn’t have the greatest takedown defence. Both fighters have decent enough grappling to negate each other on the ground and I don’t expect Mitchell to find submissions with ease against a fairly scrappy fighter like Nurmagomedov, but I do expect Mitchell to remain in top control for a fair duration with Nurmagomedov doing everything he can defensively to delay and fend of any submission set ups.

Since Mitchell is likely to be in a mount position during that ground fighting, the only real submissions that I see Mitchell setting up would be an arm triangle from top control or a transition to an Armbar, and in both cases I think Nurmagomedov is intelligent enough to just not let a submission sink in.

With that said, every fight remains standing and that’s where Said Nurmagomedov thrives as he is one of the quickest kickers in the division, he can flick lead head kicks out there like nothing, tagging up the body with teeps and chop down the legs of his opponents all whilst remaining on the back foot, and as long as he remains standing, he has a chance to make this relatively competitive.

The only concern here for any stand up collision between the two is that Bryce Mitchell gets knocked down and hurt badly as Mitchell is quite chinny, but I am somewhat coming into this bet recommendation with a firm belief that the wrestling threat of Mitchell will somewhat shut down the kicking output of Nurmagomedov because as we know by now, it’s possible to use an opponents kick to trip and get that takedown so for sure Nurmagomedov will be somewhat neutralised on the feed whilst Mitchell slowly marches him down. I expect both fighters to keep this competitive and thus a rather long and entertaining scrap.

Ibo Aslan v Billy Elekana

Light Heavyweight

18:00

Ibo Aslan by KO/TKO

Ibo Aslan has proven to be a human wrecking ball. In each of his fights you have seen him absolutely blast through competition with reckless abandon. His first round finishes are his primary selling point as a fighter and I expect to see nothing but heavy strikes being thrown from The Last Ottoman. 

To back up this KO prop, do me a favour and give Elekana’s last fight a look over, he doesn’t take punches well, he was crumbling in front of Bogdan Guskov and it didn’t take much for him to look like he was about to quit in the cage. This is not a great sign considering he’s facing a similarly dangerous foe in Aslan and it’s highly likely that whilst Elekana may have early success, Aslan is eventually going to land a punch that makes Elekana retreat and not want to be in this fight.

Even if the fight hits the third round, if Aslan has dealt enough damage throughout the first two rounds, we’re just going to see a battered Elekana be on the retreat or the referee might step in and call a TKO. Either way, I fully expect a finish here, especially within the first two rounds in which Aslan is typically fresh.

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* All odds displayed correct at the time of publishing.


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