With a number of historic feats throughout the card, the night was capped off by former two-division ONE Championship titleholder Reinier de Ridder (20-2 MMA, 4-0 UFC), who won a debated split decision over former UFC champ Robert Whittaker (26-9 MMA, 17-7 UFC) to potentially earn a title shot.

The win was the fifth in six UFC fights for Magomedov, who’d dropped a decision to Michael Page in February. Barriault, meanwhile, has lost nine of 15 with the company after arriving in 2019, having gone 11-1 in smaller promotions.

UFC Abu Dhabi featured a mighty boop, an aging kung fu master keeping some firepower and a youngling shark that attacked when the moment was right.