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Saturday night this week will see two elite UFC middleweights fight it for a possible title bout rematch against the 185-pounds champion Israel Adesanya.
UFC is going to host UFC Fight Night: Robert Whittaker vs. Kelvin Gastelum on April 17, 2021 at the company's hometurf, UFC Apex arena in Las Vegas, United States.
No. 1-ranked Robert Whittaker will face No. 8-ranked Kelvin Gastelum in the middleweight main event, while the returning Jeremy Stephens will go up against Drakkar Klose at lightweight in the co-feature of the card.
Among other matchups in what promises to be yet another action-packed fight card on Saturday, Andrei Arlovski will face Chase Sherman in a heavyweight bout, Abdul Razak Alhassan will see eye-to-eye with Jacob Malkoun at middleweight, and Luis Pena will fight Alexander Munoz in a lightweight contest on the main card.
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The event will also be the UFC's second outing in partnership with their new apparel and global outfitting sponsor, VENUM, following the completion of a six-year-old contract with Reebok.
UFC Fight Night: Whittaker vs. Gastelum
Robert Whittaker was originally scheduled to fight another former title challenger, Paulo Costa, at UFC Vegas 24. However, health issues forced Costa to withdraw from the fight with a month remaining, and Kelvin Gastelum stepped in to challenge Whittaker instead.
The two were expected to meet two years ago at UFC 234 in February 2019, but the matchup never came to fruition. Whittaker, who was the champion at that point, had to pull out owing to a collapsed bowel and internal hernia that required immediate surgery. Gastelum instead faced and lost to Israel Adesanya in April with the interim title on the line in a bout that got awarded the 'Fight of the Night' bonus.
Robert Whittaker later faced Israel Adesanya in a title unification bout in October, 2019, and lost via knockout, leading to 'The Last Stylebender' getting crowned as the new undisputed middleweight champion.
Robert Whittaker has recovered with two back-to-back wins since his loss to Israel Adesanya. He went through Darren Till and Jared Cannonier last year to earn his way back to the top. Kelvin Gastelum, on the other hand, has lost twice among the three times he has fought since battling Izzy.
Two years and a little more than a month later, the two middleweights will finally face each other inside the octagon to get a future shot at the title.
Also Read: Latest info on UFC Schedule
