UFC Sept 16: Shavkat Rakhmonov vs Kelvin Gastelum Set as Co-Main Event
Shavkat Rakhmanov vs Kelvin Gastelum welterweight bout is now official for September 16, 2023 UFC Fight Night event.
UFC President Dana White officially announced via social media that UFC will present an event on Mexican Independence Day on September 16 at T-Mobile Arena, which will be live on ESPN+. He also officially confirmed that Mexico’s Alexa Grasso takes on Valentina Shevchenko to defend UFC Women’s Flyweight title.
In addition to these announcements, White also added that Shavkat Rakhmonov will face Kelvin Gastelum in the co-main event. Gastelum and Rakhmonov earlier agreed to fight each other verbally over social media.
Shavkat Rakhmonov is one of the top surging UFC prospects with his unbeaten streak. The amazing thing about this streak is that all of his wins have come either via knockout or submission. In UFC, he has appeared five times.
Rakhmonov’s recent bout was against Geoff Neal at UFC 285 PPV event, where he went into the third round for just the second time in his career. While Neal proved to be the toughest test of his career, he still won that bout via submission late into the third round. Prior to that, Rakhmonov also defeated Neil Magny last year.
Once considered a title prospect, Kelvin Gastelum has been on indifferent form since he lost interim middleweight title bout to Israel Adesnya in 2019. Since that fight, he has just won two fights and lost three times. Gastelum’s recent bout was against Chris Curtis at UFC 287 event, where he got back to winning ways.
Gastelum is currently ranked at #14 in the UFC middleweight division. But, this bout will be in the welterweight division. Gastelum returns to the welterweight division for the first time since 2016.
Both OFFICIAL for September 16th on Mexican Independence Day! 🇲🇽
— UFC (@ufc) June 29, 2023
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