Kelvin Gastelum walks from the ring during the UFC Fight Night at Mercedes-Benz Arena on November 25, 2017 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Hu Chengwei/Getty Images)
Kelvin Gastelum has the Robert Whittaker fight he has been dreaming of ever since UFC 234
UFC middleweight fighter Kelvin Gastelum was all set to take on the then Champion, Robert Whittaker, at UFC 234 in February 2019.
But the title fight was called off as the Kiwi had to be rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery due to a hernia. As a result, their fight was called off.
Whittaker went on to face his compatriot, Israel Adesanya, at UFC 243, where he ultimately lost his belt.
And Gastelum (16-6-0, 1 NC) went on a very underwhelming 3-fight losing streak. But it seems like the fight the fans would have seen 2 years ago is finally happening.
Gastelum finally got a win under his belt against Ian Heinisch at UFC 258 and it probably came just in time as it would have been a big ask to land the Whittaker with 4 losses in a row.
Whittaker was to fight former Middleweight contender Paulo Costa. However, the Brazilian was unable to make it to the fight and that opened the door for Gastelum.
It would have been pretty tough to land the fight for the American as it is, but then again, he has one of the best agents in the game, Ali Abdelaziz.
And he wrote a tweet where he thanked a bunch of people which included his agent and UFC President Dana White.
But he seemed to be extra happy with his agent as he got another tweet in aimed at Abdelaziz, who is also the agent of superstars such as Khabib Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev.
He added the hashtag “#OnAmission4Gold” as a way of telling everyone that he is making a run for the top.
Gastelum is the #8 ranked middleweight fighter in the promotion while ‘The Reaper’ is the #1 contender. This is certainly a massive opportunity for Gastelum, one that he has to take because it may never come again.
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