A Title Challenger Gastelum Gives A Bold Prediction On His Upcoming Fight Against UFC Middleweight Champion
TUF 17 winner Kelvin Gastelum is set for the biggest fight of his career when he challenges division’s champion Robert Whittaker for a 185-pound title at UFC 234 which will go down on Feb. 10 in Melbourne, Australia.
Gastelum is super confident ahead of his clash against ‘The Reaper’ as he believes Whittaker who survived five rounds against Yoel Romero wouldn’t be last a round with him.
“I’m predicting a first-round knockout,” Gastelum said during the UFC 234 media day in the Los Angeles area Tuesday (h/t MMA Fighting). “I’ve put in so much work and I feel so confident in my abilities and confident in what I’ve done in the sport that I’m predicting a first-round knockout.”
Whittaker who’s riding on a nine-fight winning streak and wiped out division’s fiercest opponents, but Gastelum believes he’s put out all the hard work and sharpen his skills that will make his fight night easy.
“I know that if I clip them, anybody, I mean anybody in the world, not just Rob, anybody, when I cut my left hand in, he’s going down. But yeah, Rob has a lot of heart.
“I’m expecting a hard-fought fight, but at the same time, I’m so prepared for this opportunity that I’m expecting it not to even be close,” he added.
Anderson Silva was the most dominant champion of all time, and his seven-year title reign abruptly ended in 2013 when Chris Weidman stunningly delivered a knockout punch to ‘The Spider’ at UFC 162. Since then the division hasn’t got to see any dominant run by any champion. TUF 17 winner is looking to go on a long run with the title in hand.
“You’ve got guys like Borrachina [Paulo Costa] and you’ve got guys like Style Bender [Israel Adesanya] you’ve got Rob Whittaker who is still go going to be in the mix, he’s not going to go anywhere after the fight, you know what I mean?” he said. “You got Yoel Romero in the mix. The champion of this division has got his work cut out for him in his next few fights and I plan on doing just that, bring a little more legitimacy to the division, you know what I mean?
“For awhile it was GSP, and interim title, and then, so yeah. I want to be able to be the guy who brings legitimacy to the division.”
The event will co-headlined by a middleweight bout between Israel Adesanya and Anderson Silva.
Do you think Gastelum will be successful in his prediction by KO Whittaker in round one?
