Kelvin Gastelum Declared Himself The NEW UFC Middleweight Champion After Robert Whittaker Pulled Out Of Last Night's UFC 234 Main Event, Turning Heel In Glorious Fashion

After UFC Middleweight Champion Robert Whittaker was forced to pull out of his UFC 234 title defense due to a last minute, near-fatal hernia, it certainly looked like his scheduled opponent, Kelvin Gastelum, had made the trip “down undah” all for nothing.

Yeah, he may have had ringworm, and absolutely had staph, so the bout being postponed could’ve truly been a blessing in disguise for him, but nobody wants to sit on that 32475 hour flight home thinking about what could’ve been, realizing that the past few weeks of excruciating training and rigorous media just wound up not mattering at all. So…Kelvin did something about that.

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Gastelum showed up to the arena on time for his championship bout, wearing a three-piece suit, and donning a UFC Legacy Championship on his shoulder (Henry Cejudo’s, in fact), and “officially” declared himself the NEW UFC Middleweight Champion of the World, stating…

“This is my belt…I earned this. I showed up, traveled thousands and thousands of miles from home, and made the weight.

“In my world, the wrestling world, if the guy shows up and makes the weight, for some reason cancels the bout, the guy forfeits the match – I win. I am the champion.“

“This was the hardest camp of my life, so for them to rip this opportunity from me, I ain’t going to have it. I’m not going home empty handed. I promised my people I was going to go home with some hardware and here I am. I’m going to go home with the belt. Hopefully Rob heals up and I’ll give him a crack at the title.“

Absolutely savage, being doctors confirmed if Whittaker would have fought, and been punched in the stomach, he would have died? Definitely. Brilliant, though, at the same time? For SURE.

Kelvin Gastelum took a respectful rivalry that was overshadowed by its co-main event – Israel Adesanya vs Anderson Silva – and brought it to a whole new level last night with his systematic heel turn. I think he realized that the winner of Adesanya/Silva could’ve easily leapfrogged him in line for that UFC Middleweight Championship with an impressive performance, and decided to make sure that couldn’t happen…and I’m all for it, even if Conor McGregor isn’t.

Bobby Knuckles vs Evil Kelvin is now a fight nobody’s gonna want to miss. I say we get nuts and go WrestleMania X on their asses – hang both championships from the ceiling and put on a LADDER MATCH to determine the rightful champ!!!