Kelvin Gastelum says a bout with Robert Whittaker would be an instant classic
KELVIN Gastelum believes a win over Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza would pave the way for him to challenge Robert Whittaker for the UFC’s middleweight title.
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AMERICAN slugger Kelvin Gastelum believes a title bout between himself and Australia’s own Robert Whittaker has the potential to be a fight of the year and he’d be more than willing to take on the UFC middleweight champion on home soil.
Gastelum will take on Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza this weekend in the co-main event of UFC 224 on Sunday (AEST) in Rio de Janeiro in a de facto title eliminator.
The 26-year old is fresh off the most spectacular performance of his career, a one-round brutalising of former champion Michael Bisping in Shanghai last November.
With Luke Rockhold eyeing a move to light heavyweight and Chris Weidman sidelined through injury, Gastelum is primed to earn a shot at the title should he down the dangerous Brazilian.
“I feel like two young lions going at it would be ideal,” Gastelum told The Daily Telegraph.
“Two young lions who like to box and keep the fight standing would be a very entertaining fight. I think mine and Robert’s styles match up very well.
“I think we could put up a fight of the year type fight.
“I’ll fight him anywhere for the title, absolutely.”
The winner of the middleweight showdown, which has Souza entering as favourite, will be in prime position to challenge the victor of Whittaker’s June bout with Cuban bulldozer Yoel Romero.
Whittaker triumphed in the initial meeting between the pair last year to claim the title, but Gastelum believes Romero’s most recent fight, a second round thumping of another former champion Luke Rockhold, showed Romero had made some serious adjustments that could make life difficult for Whittaker when the two face off in Chicago at UFC 225.
“I have no doubt that Whittaker can do it,” Gastelum said.
“But for whatever reason I feel like Yoel learned a lot from his fight against Whittaker, and then made the proper adjustments in his fight with Luke Rockhold and just looked really good.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen him fight the way he did against Luke Rockhold where he was coming forward, being the aggressor, throwing combos and just really being the aggressor.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen him fight that way. He’s always really the patient, one shot, one kill type of fighter.
“If he continues to take that same approach Robert is going to have an even more difficult fight the second time around.”
But before all that, Souza awaits. The 38-year old has lost to Whittaker and Romero in the last three years but is otherwise unbeaten in his UFC tenure and remains one of the most gifted grapplers in MMA.
However, Gastelum believes he can turn Souza’s specialty into a weakness by pursuing a more well-rounded approach.
“I just go in there and do my thing and fight, which is my specialty.
“Jacare, his specialty is jiu-jitsu and he’s going to try and have a jiu-jitsu match, which will be wrong for him to do because this will not be a jiu-jitsu match, this will be a fight, which is my specialty.
“I don’t worry about too much what he’s going to do. I go in there thinking how I’m going to implement my game plan and how I’m going to take him into my world.”