MMA fighter Kelvin Gastelum has withdrawn from his scheduled fight against Shavkat Rakhmonov due to an injury, with plans to reschedule the match later in the year.
Kelvin Gastelum has been sidelined from his eagerly awaited face-off with Shavkat Rakhmonov due to an injury. The fight was billed as the co-main event for the upcoming Fight Night scheduled to take place in Las Vegas on Sept. 16. Gastelum took to social media on Tuesday to update fans about his injury status and expressed his hope that the fight will be rescheduled for later this year. He posted, “Unfortunately I received an injury and my fight with Shavkat Rakhmonov is off/delayed.”
Describing his condition, he stated, “Unfortunate news, my fight with Shavkat Rakhmonov is off. I received an elbow that resulted in an open fracture and a few bones came out fractured. I have to apologize to everybody who was excited about this fight. I apologize to everybody. I apologize to Shavkat Rakhmonov and his team. I feel bad. I feel very horrible about this unfortunate incident.” He went on to assert his determination to be back and continue his training. “I’ll be back. I’m still going to continue training. I can still do my strength and conditioning training, movement, I can still do a lot of my training… I asked to move it up to November. Hopefully, they will grant me this wish,”
This proposed bout with Rakhmonov was set to be Gastelum’s first match as a welterweight in over seven years. It was a move back to his original weight class after struggling to make the 170-pound mark early in his career. He had moved up to middleweight in 2016 and had some high-profile wins, even earning a shot at the interim middleweight title against Israel Adesanya. After a difficult period at 185 pounds, Gastelum decided to return to his original weight, eyeing a top contender position against Rakhmonov.
The postponement has disappointed Rakhmonov, the sixth-ranked welterweight according to UFC rankings. The undefeated Kazakh fighter had struggled to find an opponent and Gastelum presented an opportunity for a pivotal victory. He expressed interest in re-booking the match sooner, proposing it be included in the upcoming UFC 294 card in Abu Dhabi. “Pinata, I agreed to fight you on your territory on Mexican Independence Day in an arena full of your supporters and it’s not my problem you can’t do it now. It’s your turn to accept to fight me on my territory in Abu Dhabi at UFC 294!” he posted on his Twitter page. At this time, there’s no official statement regarding when or if the fight will be reorganized.