UFC Vegas 24: Robert Whittaker vs. Kelvin Gastelum Picks and Predictions

Robert Whittaker and Kelvin Gastelum face off on Saturday in the main event in a middleweight bout at UFC Vegas 24 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. 

Robert “The Reaper” Whittaker comes into this fight with a 23-5 record overall and he has won ten of his last 11 fights. The only loss during that stretch came three fights ago against Israel Adesanya, a fight that was for the title. Whittaker’s last fight came against Jared Cannonier and it was a fight that he won by unanimous decision. Whittaker had a knockdown and outstruck his opponent 69-53 which was enough to come away with the victory. Whittaker is averaging 4.52 significant strikes per minute while absorbing 3.44 significant strikes per minute. Whittaker for the most part likes to keep the fight on the feet averaging only 0.48 successful takedowns every 15 minutes but he is only successful on 27 percent of his attempts. Whittaker is also stopping 84 percent of his opponents takedown attempts.

On the other side of this matchup is Kelvin Gastelum who comes into this fight with a 17-6 record overall but coming into this fight he has lost three of his last four. Gastelum’s last fight during that stretch came in his last fight against Ian Heinisch. Gastelum outstruck his opponent 38-27 and that was enough to come away with the unanimous decision. Gastelum is averaging 3.34 significant strikes per minute while absorbing 2.92 significant strikes per minute. Gastelum is averaging 1.22 successful takedowns every 15 minutes and he is successful on 39 percent of his attempts.