This weekend’s installment of UFC fighting comes from the UFC APEX facility near Las Vegas. The main event pits Robert Whittaker, onetime UFC Middleweight Champion as well as a onetime winner of The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes in the welterweight division, against Kelvin Gastelum, a onetime UFC interim title challenger and the middleweight winner from The Ultimate Fighter: Team Jones vs Team Sonnen. Gastelum has stepped in to replace Paulo Costa, who had to withdraw because of a severe case of the flu. The co-main event will feature Drakkar Klose and Jeremy Stephens in a lightweight bout. You can catch the entire card on ESPN and ESPN+.
We have the full slate for you, along with some UFC betting insights about the two main fights.
UFC on ESPN 22: Whittaker vs Gastelum Preview
Main Card (ESPN / ESPN+)
Robert Whittaker vs Kelvin Gastelum (Middleweight)
Jeremy Stephens vs Drakkar Klose (Lightweight)
Andrei Arlovski vs Chase Sherman (Heavyweight)
Abdul Razak Alhassan vs Jacob Malkoun (Middleweight)
Luis Pena vs Alexander Munoz (Lightweight)
Preliminary Card (ESPN / ESPN+)
Tracy Cortez vs Justine Kish (Women’s Flyweight)
Alexander Romanov vs Juan Espino (Heavyweight)
Jessica Penne vs Lupita Godinez (Women’s Strawweight)
Gerald Meerschaert vs Bartosz Fabinski (Middleweight)
Austin Hubbard vs Dakota Bush (Lightweight)
Zarah Fairn Dos SAntos vs Josiane Nunes (Women’s Bantamweight)
Tony Gravely vs Anthony Birchak (Bantamweight)
Robert Whittaker (22-5, 13-3 UFC, -255) vs Kelvin Gastelum (16-6, 11-6 UFC, +215) is a fight that could put the winner up for a title rematch against Israel Adesanya. Whittaker last fought in October, taking down Jared Cannonier, which helped ease worries that Whittaker’s climb up the 185-pound division had taken a lot of his stamina away, simply causing too much damage for him to peak. When he moved from welterweight to middleweight, he had an extra speed advantage while retaining knockout power. A win over Yoel Romero in 2017 delivered him the title, which he defended once. However, he had to withdraw from fights against Luke Rockhold in 2018 and Gastelum the next year, as injuries in 2018 and a collapsed bowel (requiring emergency surgery) in 2019 sidelined him. He did come back to fight Adesanya but lost his title. The win over Cannonier was a needed rebound.
Gastelum also comes in off a win that he needed badly, although he has not reached the same heights within UFC that Whittaker has. After he moved up to middleweight, he beat the likes of Tim Kennedy, Michael Bisping and Vitor Belfort, all big names — but all at the start of the decline of their careers. Gastelum did get a title shot against Whittaker that was canceled, and then he took on Adesanya in a five-round war that Gastelum narrowly lost on the cards. He came out against Jack Hermansson with dreadful defense and ended up trapped by a heel hook. In February, though, he steamrolled Ian Heinisch, showing that his talent sets him apart from the vast majority of the promotion’s middleweight fighters.
This is a dangerous bout for Whittaker, because Gastelum simply does not give out knockouts. As a result, Whittaker will have to stack up points for 25 minutes without giving up the big bombs. Gastelum could take the win with one punch if Whittaker lets his defenses down, but Whittaker showed against Cannonier that he can negotiate this sort of gauntlet.
Final Prediction:
Whittaker wins via decision
Jeremy Stephens (28-18, 15-17 UFC, -140) vs Drakkar Klose (11-2-1, 5-2 UFC, +120) gives us a fighter with 36 pro bouts despite just being 34 years old — but he has not won since 2018, so he has come back to the lightweight classification to see if that will turn his luck. He left the lightweight class for featherweight in 2013, and finding a power and strength advantage at a lower weight class helped him out at first, although the top fighters in the division, such as Charles Oliveira and Cub Swanson, showed him his limitations. He was at first known as a pure striker, but he showed more strategy in wins over Doo Ho Choi and Gilbert Melendez. He knocked out Josh Emmett to give himself a three-bout winning streak, but since then he has dropped five in a row. Now he’s coming back up to the lightweight division to fight Klose.
Klose just took the first loss via stoppage in his career. He thrives when he has control of the fight, and when his opponents get intimidated, he takes advantage when they slow down and let him get the grappling advantage. That did not pay off when Beneil Dariush decided to bull-rush his defenses and delivered a knockout in his last fight. He could grind out the points here, but at some point Stephens should get the striking game running, which should overwhelm Klose’s defenses.
Final Prediction:
Stephens wins via knockout
UFC Betting Odds
Love betting on the UFC fights? | Xbet Sportsbook offers up to date UFC lines
