The upcoming fight with Aussie Robert Whittaker up against American Kelvin Gastelum is set to be a big one. Originally, Whittaker was scheduled to fight Brazillian Paulo Costa, but he had to withdraw due to illness. It didn’t take long for Kelvin Gastelum to be brought in to replace him for this long-overdue fight.
Back in 2019 the two were supposed to fight, but Whittaker had to withdraw at the last minute with emergency surgery for a hernia.
Gastelum then fought against Adesanya for an interim title, but lost, leaving Whittaker to go up against Adesanya, with the Whittaker-Gastelum bout on pause - until now. As Whittaker has said, “I kind of owe a fight to him anyway”.
Sitting at the top of the middleweight rankings, Whittaker is a force to be reckoned with. With the exception of his loss to Adesanya, he’s been on a winning streak since 2014. Though he may have the motivation to fight hard, Adesanya seems to show more interest in fighting against Darren Till if he beats Vettori in the next bout. Whittaker is not impressed, especially considering that he beat Till last year. This fight may just be a big decider of the next step in Whittaker’s career.
On fighting against Gastelum, Whittaker has said, “I think he is a very good fighter. Yeah, I think people look too much into his recent losses and it takes away from how good he actually is.”
Gastelum hasn’t had the strong winning streak that Whittaker has. Since his loss against Adesanya, he’s also lost to Darren Till and Jack Hermansson, though he did have a comeback win against Ian Heinisch in February 2021, so is certainly feeling the motivation to stay strong and fight hard.
On fighting more in 2021, Gastelum said, “You guys know I don’t back down from a challenge. The bigger the challenge, the more excited I get. So that’s why I wanted to throw my name out there when I said I’d be the replacement if anything should happen to either of those fighters, Whittaker or Costa.”
And, oh, is it happening…
With both fighters so eager and ready for the fight, it is sure to be an epic one.
MAIN CARD
Middleweight Bout
Robert Whittaker vs Kelvin Gastelum