Kelvin Gastelum Wasn’t Impressed with Robert Whittaker’s Performance at UFC 243

Robert Whittaker is no longer middleweight champion after Israel Adesanya defeated him by technical knockout in the second round in the UFC 243 headliner this past Saturday.

It was Whittaker’s first loss in the middleweight division, yet Kelvin Gastelum believes if they fought in February he would have been the person to beat Whittaker. Whittaker and Gastelum were slated to meet at UFC 234 before “The Reaper” withdrew from the contest due to a hernia.

Gastelum says he was not impressed by Whittaker’s outing against Adesanya and knew he would have dropped him based on his footwork and head movement.

“I think it was rather disappointing the way that he performed,” he said to MMAFighting.com “The reason I say that is I feel like I was robbed of an opportunity, and for him to go out there and perform the way that he did, was rather disappointing for me. I think I would’ve dropped him like a sack of potatoes in February and he robbed me of that opportunity.

“He didn’t look good. I think he tried to imitate or take some things from my fight, where he was lunging in and kind of moving in with his head. I just figured he tried to take some of the stuff from my fight and implement it, and it just didn’t end up going well. He didn’t have the right footwork, he didn’t have the right head movement, he didn’t have the right boxing approach, and it didn’t end up well for him.”

Gastelum will return to the Octagon on Nov. 2 when he welcomes Darren Till to the middleweight division at UFC 244.