UFC Predictions: UFC Fight Night: Cannonier vs. Gastelum
After a week without any UFC action, the world’s biggest MMA promotion is back this weekend for another event – UFC Fight Night: Cannonier vs. Gastelum.
UFC Vegas 34 features a strong main event between top-ranked middleweights Jared Cannonier and Kelvin Gastelum, as well as some other promising bouts.
The show lacks some name value, but after a week without a UFC event, this one should be a welcome return and should hopefully produce some entertaining bouts.
Here are the predicted outcomes for UFC Fight Night: Cannonier vs. Gastelum.
#1. UFC middleweight division: Jared Cannonier vs. Kelvin Gastelum
Former champion Robert Whittaker seems set to fight Israel Adesanya for the UFC middleweight title in the near future. It then makes sense for the UFC to book the last two fighters who lost to Whittaker against one another.
Given Adesanya has largely cleared out the middleweight division, there’s every chance that a strong performance from either Jared Cannonier or Kelvin Gastelum here could net them a UFC title shot down the line. This is especially true if ‘The Last Stylebender’ is still holding the title, given his close interim title fight with Gastelum and his desire to fight Cannonier.
So which man has the advantage? In terms of recent form, you’d probably give Cannonier the edge. ‘The Killa Gorilla’ looked like a largely middling light-heavyweight, but since dropping down to 185lbs in 2018, he’s proven himself to be highly dangerous.
Cannonier won his first three middleweight bouts in the UFC, finishing David Branch, Anderson Silva, and Jack Hermansson all via KO/TKO.
That positioned him for his fight with Whittaker, and while he lost, he’s still clearly one of the top 185lbers in the world. With that said, many UFC fans still largely underestimate him. Why is that?
It’s a little hard to say. Cannonier hits remarkably hard with all of his strikes, as we saw when he stopped the streaking Hermansson in violent fashion. However, perhaps it can be argued that ‘The Killa Gorilla’ is a little one-dimensional in his straight-ahead striking style.
Essentially, Cannonier doesn’t exactly use much finesse in the way he fights, preferring to march forward throwing power shots.
The fact that he doesn’t use too many feints, head movement, or much footwork was largely why Whittaker was able to pick him off pretty comfortably in their fight. So can Gastelum do the same?
If you’re going by skill set alone, then perhaps. Gastelum, who won the 17th season of The Ultimate Fighter back in 2013, is a pretty decent technical striker. Kelvin Gastelum sits behind a jab to set up his combinations and mixes them well with his tricky wrestling game.
Gastelum also has plenty of top-level experience, having beaten the likes of Michael Bisping and Jacare Souza. He even went five rounds with Adesanya in 2019, pushing him harder than any other fighter in the UFC.
Where Gastelum may struggle in this fight is with Cannonier’s sheer physicality. ‘The Killa Gorilla’ is a huge 185lber, whereas Gastelum could probably still make 170lbs with a strict diet.
Overall, this is a tricky fight to pick, but it is worth noting that Gastelum has never been stopped by strikes before – and in fact, it’s hard to remember any fights that saw him get badly hurt. If his chin can hold up here, this may well be his fight to lose, even if he struggles with Cannonier’s strength in the early going.
The Pick: Gastelum via unanimous decision