Whittaker believes it’s time for him and Adesanya to cross paths again after The Reaper dominated Kelvin Gastelum inside the octagon at UFC Vegas 24.
On 18th April, Robert Whittaker took on #8 ranked UFC fighter Kelvin Gastelum in a middleweight bout. After five rounds of fighting, The Reaper came away with the victory on a unanimous decision with the judges scoring 50-45 on all cards.
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The Australian MMA star displayed just how special a fighter he is, by landing all kinds of punches and kicks on Gastelum who didn’t have an answer to any of Whittaker’s strikes. The Reaper kept striking KG with clean shots which broke through his guard but as we all know, Kelvin Gastelum is a tough guy to KO. There was a point in the fight where Gastelum was about to land a big right on Whittaker and he ducked under and swerved before he landed a big right on the counter which left Gastelum struggling a bit. The American Mixed Martial Artist did well however, to stay on his feet and his rare punches, which connected well, caused Whittaker’s face to swell up.
Both the stars kept the show running till the very end of the fifth round. Whittaker was just on top of his game and was better than KG who just couldn’t manage to land his big punches. This match proved how mature a fighter KG has developed into and Robert too, after the two shared friendly words post the fight. This victory made it three wins in a row for Bobby Knuckles since his title losing defeat to The Last Style Bender, Israel Adesanya. When Whittaker was asked about his opinion on Adesanya, he said that he has nothing but respect for the current champion and that he is a great fighter, but he believes that the two should talk. He said, “I think it’s about time we crossed paths again. We can get a sold-out stadium; they might even open up the borders for Australia in September. Let’s make that happen. Let’s see if we can get a stadium back home.”
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After Whittaker won the match, Adesanya tweeted, “Good job my son”. To which the Reaper replied by saying “It’s him, it is what it is. You know he had a win, he gets the trash-talking rights. He beat me last time. I’m gonna work hard. I think I got some tricks that he hasn’t seen yet, and I’ll give him a good run I think”.
[Image Credit: Robert Whittaker MMA]
Shashank Iyer