UFC Vegas 34, topped by a middleweight showdown between Jared Cannonier and Kelvin Gastelum, came storming out of the gate guns blazing on Saturday.
The Fight Night card made up for a lack of big names with a number of big finishes: the first four fights ended inside the distance. Among them, a highlight reel, knockout of the year candidate by Ignacio Bahamondes, who captured his first UFC win in style.
In the main event, of course, there were Gastelum and Cannonier. After a setback against ex-champ Robert Whittaker last time out, and arm surgery, Cannonier was looking to get back on track and return to the short list of title shot candidates in the 185lb division.
Gastelum was also looking to work his way back to where he’d been previously. In his case, the TUF 17 champion had been all the way to an interim title fight with Israel Adesanya — and arguably gave “The Last Stylebender” the toughest test of his career. But since then, Gastelum had been slipping, losing more than he’d won. At 1-3 since the Izzy fight (and 1-4 if you included it), Gastelum’s mission for gold had all but fallen off the map.
Following UFC Vegas 34, tune in for the post-fight press conference. A live stream is available above.
