"You can bet the house on that" - Kelvin Gastelum shares prediction for Sean Strickland vs. Dricus du Plessis
UFC welterweight Kelvin Gastelum has thrown his hat in the prediction ring for UFC 297's middleweight championship clash, placing his chips on Sean Strickland to retain his title against Dricus du Plessis.
Appearing in a recent video on his YouTube channel, Gastelum stated:
"Prediction at the end of the day will be Sean [Strickland] winning by TKO maybe in the third or fourth round. He's not a guy that goes out and finishes fights early, right?"
He added:
"So I think he can, however, get it done later in the fight. Maybe in the fourth or fifth rounds, he'll get a TKO victory. I don't know how, I don't know which way, don't ask me, but that's my pick... You can bet the house on that."
Check out Kelvin Gastelum's comments below (05:44):
This highly anticipated clash headlines UFC's first pay-per-view event of 2024 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.
The card boasts another title fight in the co-main event, with Raquel Pennington and Mayra Bueno Silva vying for the vacant bantamweight title left by the recent retirement of Amanda Nunes.
Sean Strickland sheds light on grueling weight cut for UFC 297
Sean Strickland offered a raw and unfiltered look at the often-overlooked struggle of fight week: the weight cut. In Episode 3 of UFC 297's Embedded: Vlog Series, Strickland admitted that shedding the pounds presents a bigger hurdle than the fight itself:
"The only thing that I really focus on is making weight. Fighting is the easy part, it's going there, and fighting lasts 25 minutes. I hate this sh*t. I can spar endless times, endless, if you wanna have me spar 10, or 15 rounds, no problem. You told me to f**k around, I f**king hate it."
He added:
"The next three days kinda suck, tomorrow after I wake up I'll do a nice jog, media day all day. Then I go out to my buddy's gym who I talk to. Then, on Wednesday, repeat. Thursday, cut weight. We get paid to make weight, not to fight. F**king sucks."
Check out Sean Strickland's comments below (04:21):