“He will have a real chance at regaining that middleweight title,” Kelvin Gastelum claims Robert Whittaker can defeat Israel Adesanya
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Kelvin Gastelum, Robert Whittaker and Israel Adesanya
The UFC Middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya successfully defended his title in the main event of UFC 263 against Marvin Vettori by displaying an absolutely dominating performance.
Immediately after his win, Adesanya called out the former Middleweight champion, Robert Whittaker to face him next in a rematch as Whittaker is on a three-fight win streak since he lost his title against Israel Adesanya and he is the number one contender for the title.
Apart from these two, there is one man who has gone five rounds against each of them, i.e. the former interim Middleweight champion, Kelvin Gastelum. He fought against Adesanya at UFC 236 and lost his interim title to him in that fight.
After that ‘The Last StyleBender’ unified his title against Whittaker via a second-round TKO victory and since then ‘The Reaper’ has defeated the top three contenders in the division.
His last win comes against Gastelum and he thinks this improved version of Whittaker can be real trouble for Adesanya. Talking to the reporters at UFC 263, Kelvin Gastelum says,
“Rob impressed me a lot in that fight against myself, if he fights the way that he did against myself, he will have a real chance at regaining that middleweight title.” {H/T MMA Junkie}
Kelvin Gastelum says Whittaker was even tough to fight than Israel Adesanya
Kelvin Gastelum took the fight against Robert Whittaker after Paulo Costa withdrew his name from this fight due to illness and he isn’t ashamed to claim that Whittaker outlasted him in every department of that fight.
Gastelum added, “He was just a step ahead the entire time, it really motivated me. It really lit a fire in me to know that I still kind of have a little bit of work to get to that level. He impressed me a lot.”
“I didn’t think he was that good. Looking back at the fight, I’ve never felt like that in a fight. Not even Israel Adesanya made me feel like that. He really frustrated me, really made me look bad.” {H/T MMA Junkie}
Kelvin Gastelum continued, “He was much faster than me. He really utilized his footwork really well. He did not want to stand and pocket with me. I kept hearing his corner saying, ‘Get out of the pocket.”
“Get out of the pocket. You don’t want to stand in the pocket.’ And he used his jab really well. He was little bit faster than I am.”
Along with Gastelum, many people also claimed that Whittaker can be a real threat to Adesanya’s Middleweight throne. What are your views on this?
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Shivansh Thakur
(1173 Articles Published)