Whittaker takes down Gastelum
Robert Whittaker continues to build momentum in his quest for a middleweight championship rematch with Israel Adesanya, after taking down Kelvin Gastelum in the main event of a UFC Fight Night held at the APEX Facility in Las Vegas.
The Australian put in a dominant performance to claim a deserved unanimous decision (50-45 50-45 50-45) victory over Gastelum and move to a career record of 23-5 – including three successive wins since he gave up the division belt to NigerianNew Zealander Adesanya back in October 2019.
‘The Reaper’ bossed the fight from start to finish with striking that was both of a better quality and a higher quantity than Gastelum, who nonetheless landed a few significant blows of his own and showed incredible durability to soak up the punishment and still be standing at the end of 25 minutes.
“I feel on top of the world,” said Whittaker, who was initially scheduled to fight Paulo Costa, before the latter withdrew.
“Obviously, this was a very hard fight. I think a lot of people were selling Kelvin short for where he was in the rankings. He’s one of the best fighters in the division, and that was a tough fight.”
The victor added, “[Adesanya is] a great fighter. But I think it’s about time we cross paths once again. They might just open up the borders for Australia in September. Let’s make that happen. Let’s see if we can get a stadium back home.”
The event also saw 42-yearold veteran Andrei Arlovski prove that he still has gas in the tank after a classy unanimous decision win over Chase Sherman: “I looked for every opportunity to prove that I’m not done,” said the former heavyweight champion.
The other main card bouts saw Jacob Malkoun defeat Ghana’s Abdul Razak Alhassan via unanimous decision, while Tracy Cortez and Luis Pena both claimed split decision wins over Justine Kish (women’s catchweight) and Alexander Munoz (lightweight) respectively. The next Ultimate Fighting Championship event is UFC 261, which will be held at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida on Sunday 25 April and will be headlined by a welterweight championship rematch between Nigeria’s Kamaru Usman and American Jorge Masvidal.