UFC on ESPN 22 Main Event
On the night of Saturday to Sunday, April 18, in Las Vegas (Nevada, USA) the UFC on ESPN 22 (or UFC Vegas 24) tournament will take place, which will be held without spectators at the UFC Apex mini-arena. The fight will be broadcast live on Setanta Sports.
In the main event of UFC on ESPN 22, former UFC middleweight champion, number one ranked Robert Whittaker will face Kelvin Gastelum.
The matchmakers planned that Whittaker would fight Paulo Costa on this show, but the Brazilian caught the flu and was forced to withdraw from the fight on March 16. Whittaker could have fought Gastelum two years ago as a UFC champion, but a hernia prompted Robert to withdraw from the fight hours before it began.
Whittaker lost his belt in October 2019 in a 2nd round knockout loss to Israel Adesanya. The Australian had a productive 2020 with decision wins over Darren Till and Jared Cannonier.
Gastelum is ranked 8th in the UFC despite losing three of his last four fights. After a series of three losses (to Adesanya, Till and Jack Hermansson), he returned in February of this year with a unanimous decision victory over Ian Heinish.
Prediction for the fight
Gastelum is an excellent grappler who can knock out an opponent with one punch, while he is a rather primitive striker. In the stand, he is noticeably inferior to Whittaker, who also fights well and defends against takedowns.
Whittaker is more than capable of outplaying an opponent on the stand and at the same time preventing him from realizing his advantage on the ground. If the ex-champion manages to avoid the “bombs” of Gastelum, then he should extend his winning streak. Considering Calvin’s strong chin and the fact that Robert has not won by knockout for a long time, we believe the fight will go the whole distance.
Whittaker win on points
Main card
Robert Whittaker – Kelvin Gastelum
Drakkar Klose – Jeremy Stephens
Andrei Orlovsky – Chase Sherman
Abdul Razak Alhassan – Jacob Malkun
Alexander Munoz – Luis Pena
preliminary card
Tracy Cortez – Justin Kish
Juan Espino – Alexander Romanov
Lupita Godinez – Jessica Penn
Bartosz Fabinsky – Gerald Mearschert
Zara Fairn – Josiane Nunez
Anthony Birchak – Tony Gravely
Austin Hubbard – Nathan Lev
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