Robert Whittaker may not have any KO losses on his record, and is regarded to be one of the toughest fighters in the game, but Kelvin Gastelum’s predicting he’ll quickly take out the middleweight champ.
The fighters are scheduled to throw down in the headliner of UFC 234, which will take place on February 9th in Melbourne, Australia. As the bout approaches, Whittaker is riding a nine fight winning streak, which includes wins over dangerous contenders like “Jacare” Souza, Yoel Romero and Derek Brunson.
Well, recently Gastelum spoke with the media ahead of the event, and while discussing how he believes the fight will go, he said this (quotes via MMA Fighting):
“I’m predicting a first-round knockout,” Gastelum said. “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.”
“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,” Gastelum said. “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.”
How about that for a prediction? The only fighter to stop Whittaker with strikes is Stephen Thompson, who scored a first round, TKO win over him in 2014. There’s no question, however, that Gastelum can crack with that left hand. Just ask Michael Bisping.