Preview: UFC on ABC 6 ‘Whittaker vs. Aliskerov’

The Ultimate Fighting Championship makes its long-awaited debut in Saudi Arabia with UFC on ABC 6 this Saturday at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, and it should help pick up what has been a lackluster June schedule thus far. The main event sees a late change but remains quite interesting. The initial pairing of middleweights Robert Whittaker and Khamzat Chimaev could have resulted in a title shot for the latter, but he instead gets replaced by a divisional dark horse in Ikram Aliskerov, who finally gets a chance at a breakout win. The co-headliner pits Sergei Pavlovich against Alexander Volkov and should sort out a piece of the heavyweight division. Meanwhile, the rest of the bill should provide some excitement. Kelvin Gastelum and Daniel Rodriguez figure to meet one another head-on, and there are any number of possibilities that could happen in a Johnny Walker outing.

Now to the UFC on ABC 6 “Whittaker vs. Aliskerov” preview:

Middleweights

#3 MW | Robert Whittaker (25-7, 16-5 UFC) vs. Ikram Aliskerov (15-1, 2-0 UFC)

ODDS: Whittaker (-142), Aliskerov (+120)

The situation somehow worked out for Aliskerov, at least in terms of getting a shot at a breakthrough victory. Aliskerov was already well-tested ahead of his 2022 win on Dana White’s Contender Series—his lone professional loss came to the aforementioned Chimaev—so he looked like a talent that the UFC could move up the ladder quickly. Indeed, he got a tough test for his UFC debut in May 2023 against Phil Hawes, which showed both the positives and negatives of Aliskerov’s approach. He seemed to have some issues initially dealing with an opponent who could physically hold up to his bullying style, but Aliskerov solved the problem in the simplest manner, swinging for the knockout until he found Hawes’ chin. It has been a challenge for Aliskerov to get his next step up in competition, despite the UFC’s best efforts. Fights against ranked or near-ranked opponents Paulo Costa, Nassourdine Imavov, Anthony Hernandez and Andre Muniz have each fallen through for various reasons. Aliskerov was at least able to get some work in against Warlley Alves for a quick win in October, and up until a few days ago it appeared he would have to settle for another one-sided win over a late replacement newcomer in Antonio Trocoli. However, with Chimaev suddenly out of this headliner against Whittaker, Aliskerov steps in to try and announce himself as a title contender with a win over the former champion.

Whittaker is in a tough spot at the moment. He’s clearly still on the fringes of the middleweight elite, but his losses have left him without much of a path back to the title picture in the short term. As a result, it’s time for “The Reaper” to just keep winning and hope things eventually break his way. Whittaker was an early example of the benefits of bucking the conventional wisdom and moving up in weight rather than down. Once Whittaker stopped cutting down to welterweight, things immediately clicked for him as a comparatively faster boxer with much stronger cardio. It quickly became apparent that Whittaker would be a problem for the middleweight division at a high level, and his career blasted into overdrive near the tail end of 2016. A series of quick turnarounds saw him knock out Derek Brunson and Ronaldo Souza before beating Yoel Romero for the UFC’s interim middleweight title. Once Georges St. Pierre retired and vacated the belt, Whittaker was promoted to full-time champion, and the hope was that he’d get to headline one of the UFC’s jaunts down to Australia, where he could return as the conquering hero. However, that never came together, mostly thanks to Whittaker dealing with some major injury issues. His lone successful title defense was a rematch against Romero on American soil, and when Whittaker finally got the final walkout on a card in Melbourne, it came in what mostly felt like a passing of the torch to Israel Adesanya, who knocked him out to become middleweight champion and the new leading man of the region. Whittaker has done well to keep honing his craft in the years since, as he might be the most technically sound fighter in the division, but there is a sense that the cracks are starting to show as he continues to fight an uphill physical battle. He can pick apart most of his opposition, but as he continues to face larger and more powerful opponents, each time he gets hit seems to have potentially dire consequences. Whittaker’s loss to Dricus Du Plessis a shade under a year ago showed that dynamic as starkly as ever. Du Plessis’ form might not be the prettiest, but his combination of power and persistence left Whittaker without much of an answer until a second-round finish. There’s the clear risk that Whittaker suffers a similar fate here, particularly early on. Aliskerov’s a powerhouse who tends to start off hot, often throwing technical form to the side in order to physically overwhelm his opponents. Still, there’s also little to suggest that Aliskerov can hang with Whittaker over the long haul, as this is a huge step up from the Russian’s competition in recent years. The lean is that Whittaker can survive the early going and take this over by the second or third round. The pick is Whittaker via fourth-round stoppage.

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Whittaker vs. Aliskerov
Pavlovich vs. Volkov
Gastelum vs. Rodriguez
Naimov vs. Lima
Walker vs. Oezdemir
The Prelims