Adesanya Expects To Fight Gastelum For Title Soon
When Robert Whittaker had to pull out of his UFC middleweight title defence against Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 234, Israel Adesanya stood up to the plate and took on Anderson Silva in the main event.
Following an entertaining decision win over the former champion, Adesanya declared himself the UFC middleweight number one contender. Earlier, Gastelum had told the media, including Asian Persuasion MMA, that he was the new UFC middleweight champion. You can see Adesanya and Gastelum stake their claims here.
Despite the fact that Dana White announced that Whittaker should be back in training in four to eight weeks, Adesanya is urging the UFC to make him vs Gastelum for the title. As ‘The Last Style Bender’ told MMA Junkie Radio.
“Honestly, you know when Dominick Cruz kept hurting himself and got surgery after surgery after surgery? The UFC stripped him, and this is another one of those. This isn’t the first time this has happened or second time with Robert. This is ongoing. He’s hurt, he’s out for much longer and he’s hurt again, then has a fight and is out for this long. You can’t hold up the whole division. My idea is strip him, take the belt off him, and me and Kelvin fight for the real belt. Then when he’s all healed up and 100 percent, he can come see me and challenge for the belt.
“I understand in his position, but he’s going to be the number one [contender] no matter happens in the [Paulo] Costa vs [Yoel] Romero fight, no matter what happens with ‘Jacare’ [Souza] or [Luke] Rockhold or whoever. Robert Whittaker will be the number one contender. He can come see me when he’s healthy. If you’re that confident you can beat me, you’re that confident you can get it back, it shouldn’t be a problem.
“I’m sure they’ll try to put an interim thing in there, but the interim thing is just like a little bandaid. They throw it on anything. F*** an interim belt. Guys are constantly not making it to work, so just strip him and he’ll be the number one contender and eventually he can come see me.”
And Adesanya doesn’t think we’ll have to wait long to see him and Gastelum battle it out in the cage for the belt.
“You’ll probably see me and Kelvin pretty soon.”
Do you think Whittaker should be stripped of the title?
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