Kelvin Gastelum looks to get back to winning ways in the co-main event at UFC Fight Island 3. Taking on the tricky Jack Hermansson, Gastelum will be looking to get back in the win column having dropped his previous two fights. The winner of this certainly catapults themselves into the title picture.
Back-to-Back Losses
The Ultimate Fighter 17 winner debuted in the UFC at welterweight, despite winning the show at middleweight and made a 5-0 start in the big league. Following a string of weight misses and jumping up and down in weight, Gastelum made the decision to be a full-time middleweight.
After an impressive run at 185lbs, Kelvin Gastelum was scheduled to fight Robert Whittaker at UFC 234 for the belt in early 2019. Unfortunately, having weighed in, squared off and been ready to fight, Whittaker had to withdraw from the fight the day prior to the bout.
As a result of this, we saw an instant classic. We saw a fight of the year. We saw an absolute war. Kelvin Gastelum took on rising star Israel Adesanya for the interim middleweight strap. After a back-and-forth fight, Adesanya took the decision. Gastelum caused Adesanya more problems than anyone had before and it showed just showed how talented Kelvin Gastelum is.
He then was booked to welcome Darren Till to the middleweight division. UFC 244 was the stage for Gastelum vs Till in the co-main event. In predominantly a stand-up fight, ‘‘The Gorilla’ got the nod by split decision handing Gastelum another L. This marks the first time that Kelvin Gastelum has suffered back to back losses in his professional career.
The Joker
Kelvin Gastelum’s opponent on Fight Island will be Jack Hermansson. The Sweedish born fighter holds a professional record of 20-5 and a UFC record of 7-3. Coming off a loss to Thiago Santos, something seemed to change. Three finish victories led to a main event against the former Strikeforce middleweight champion, Jacare Souza. Hermansson impressed and got the unanimous decision victory. This led to a fight with Jared Cannonier, with the winner becoming a legitimate contender at 185lbs. Unfortunately for ‘The Joker’, he suffered a knockout loss to Cannonier in the second round.
The herky-jerky striker with a strong ground game and savage ground and pound will be looking to get back in the win column and hand Kelvin Gastelum his third loss on the spin.
Rest of the Card
The main event sees a flyweight title rematch between Davidson Figueiredo and Joseph Benevidez. Marc Diakese returns to take on Rafael Fiziev. Headlining the prelims if debuting finisher Roman Dolisze, who takes on two fight UFC veteran Khadis Ibragimov.
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