The Bloody Elbow team has made its own forecasts for UFC 234, and it’s a clean sweep for Robert Whittaker to shield his middleweight title by beating Kelvin Gastelum, while everyone is backing Israel Adesanya over Anderson Silva from the co-main event. In other words, congrats to Gastelum and Silva on their wins on Saturday.
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Notice: Predictions are entered during the week and collected the day prior to the event. Explanations behind each choice are not required and some writers opt not to do this for their own reasons. For instance, if Phil Mackenzie entered all his predictions on Wednesday without incorporating in any explanations, he has no idea if he’s going to be the only one siding with one fighter for any given fight.
Robert Whittaker vs. Kelvin Gastelum
Anton Tabuena: 2 prior welterweights fighting for the middleweight belt. Will this convince people that intense weight reduction actually isn’t worth the trade off in operation? Probably not, but this ought to be a fun bout either way at least. I believe this will be even closer than that which the chances say, but I believe Whittaker is just marginally better just about anywhere, so he should take this. Robert Whittaker by decision.
Mookie Alexander: Gastelum absolutely has a chance here. He has powerful hands, insane strength — not that Whittaker’s durability is to be scoffed at by any means — and excellent cardio. However, he’s not going to be able to take Whittaker down (or at least hold him ), and Whittaker has far more depth to his offensive striking. His leg kicks in particular can slow Gastelum down, and I think he cuts angles and mixes up his strike choice and targets more efficiently than Kelvin. It is going to be a close battle through the opening couple of rounds however Whittaker will come on strong in the following rounds and get the win. Robert Whittaker by unanimous decision.
