Kelvin Gastelum vs. Ian Heinisch set for January showdown
Kelvin Gastelum is looking to snap his losing streak in January against Ian Heinisch.
According to Brett Okamoto of ESPN, Gastelum and Heinisch have agreed to fight one another at a Fight Night event on January 30. The UFC hasn’t announced a location of the event, but it will likely be either on Fight Island or at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
Kelvin Gastelum was submitted by Jack Hermansson last time out. Before that, he suffered decision losses to Darren Till and Israel Adesanya for the interim middleweight title. Although Gastelum is a big name and a perennial contender at 185-pounds, he has not won since UFC 224 in May of 2018 when he defeated Jacare Souza by split decision. Since moving up to middleweight, he is 3-4 and one no-contest.
Gastelum also hinted at fighting Edmen Shahbazyan on social media, but for whatever reason, it appears Heinisch will be his next opponent.
Ian Heinisch, meanwhile, was supposed to fight Brendan Allen at UFC Vegas 13 but the fight was canceled on the day of due to Heinisch testing positive for COVID-19. The 15th ranked Heinisch returned to the win column at UFC 250 with a first-round TKO win over Gerald Meerschaert. Before that, he suffered back-to-back decision losses to Omari Akhmedov and Derek Brunson. Currently, he is 3-2 in the UFC.
Gastelum vs. Heinisch is a fight that makes a lot of sense. Gastelum, no doubt needed a step back in competition rankings wise as he looks to snap his losing streak. Heinisch, meanwhile, is looking to climb the rankings once again after faltering against Brunson back at UFC 241.
The Jan. 30 UFC event is now as follows:
- Kelvin Gastelum vs. Ian Heinisch
- Matt Brown vs. Carlos Condit
- Viviane Araujo vs. Roxanne Modafferi
- Vinicius Moreira vs. Ike Villanueva
- Ode Osbourne vs. Jerome Rivera
- Zarrukh Adashev vs. Jeffrey Molina
