Kelvin Gastelum Reacts to Luke Rockhold Potentially Fighting Robert Whittaker

The news is still as fresh as the Christmas trees your neighbors are probably already putting up: Luke Rockhold is slated to fight interim UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker at UFC 221 in Perth, Australia. That is sure to make Rockhold happy after his divisional criticisms, but it definitely isn’t the news Kelvin Gastelum wanted. He just knocked out the former champion Michael Bisping, which he felt granted him at least a shot at the interim belt holder if Georges St-Pierre isn’t sure of his next move. He took to Twitter to express this as soon as the news was dropped.

👎👎👎👎👎 fart noise * https://t.co/KwomUMoO6m

— #OnAmission4Gold (@KelvinGastelum) December 6, 2017

Preliminary talks are underway to book Robert Whittaker vs. Luke Rockhold for UFC 221 in Perth, Western Australia, sources say. Not 100% just yet, though.

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) December 6, 2017

“I trained for this, and I expected it coming into the fight that I would knock [Michael Bisping] out. I am confident in my abilities. I’m here to focus on my career and get where I need to be, which is the middleweight title. I heard Robert Whittaker needs a main event over in Australia for February and I’m up the challenge. You guys say I beat up all the elderly, and Robert Whittaker is definitely not an elderly, he’s probably my age, so I’m up for the challenge.  [Georges St-Pierre] said it himself: Anything can happen in the sport of MMA, you know. I feel like Robert Whittaker and I should be next. We’re two young guys who haven’t even hit our prime yet, and I just beat the guy who was the guy so I think I should be next. I don’t know what you guys are talking about, [Bisping] was the middleweight champion three weeks ago.” – Kelvin Gastelum at the UFC Shanghai post-fight press conference.

Kelvin Gastelum has already threw some shade at Luke Rockhold with a poll last night, perhaps he knew something we didn’t. In his last two fights, Rockhold lost his belt to Bisping but went on to finish former two-division WSOF champ David Branch. As for Gastelum, he was submitted by Chris Weidman and then knocked out Bisping at UFC Shanghai. We don’t have a dog in the fight, luckily we’re not UFC matchmakers. Either way, this probably won’t be the last time we hear about this and we’ll be hear for the official announcement when it drops.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 12/6/2017.