Massive contender fight reportedly in the works after stunning UFC Des Moines upset

Originally posted on MMA on SI | By Drew Beaupre | Last updated May 7, 2025 12:43 PM ET

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It looks like arguably the biggest winner from last weekend’s UFC Des Moines is already in talks for what would be a massive next fight.

The UFC will close out its recent road trip this weekend when UFC 315 takes place at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and following trips to Miami and Kansas City the promotion returned to Iowa last week for a UFC Fight Night event at Des Moines’ Wells Fargo Arena.

The main event saw Cory Sandhagen potentially set himself up for a bantamweight title shot when he defeated Deiveson Figueiredo, but much of the focus in the aftermath of UFC Des Moines has been on Renier de Ridder’s upset win over Bo Nickal in the night’s co-main event.

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UFC Reportedly Targets Reinier de Ridder vs. Robert Whittaker

De Ridder came into the night as a sizeable underdog despite the fact that he was a former two-division ONE Championship titleholder and undefeated in the UFC, and “RDR” stunned the formerly-unbeaten Nickal when he stopped the wrestling standout with knees in the second round.

The dust has barely settled from de Ridder’s third UFC victory, but Giorgi Kokiashvili reports that a matchup between the Dutchman and former UFC Middleweight Champion Robert Whittaker is already in the works.

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Whittaker Looks To Rebound From Ugly Loss

Currently sitting at #5 in the UFC middleweight rankings, Whittaker is coming off a first-round loss to Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 308 that saw “The Reaper” tap to a nasty face crank that did some serious damage to the former champion’s jaw.

That loss snapped a two-fight win streak for Whittaker, and prior to facing Chimaev his only middleweight losses had come against two-time UFC Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya (twice) and current titleholder Dricus Du Plessis.

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The #3-ranked Chimaev appears to be the frontrunner to challenge Du Plessis next even though Nassourdine Imavov currently holds the division’s #1 ranking, and if the fight between de Ridder and Whittaker does come together it will be interesting to see how the winner fits into the middleweight title picture.

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This article first appeared on MMA on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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