UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker was forced to pull out of his UFC 234 title bout with Kelvin Gastelum on Saturday after suffering a hernia in his abdomen, per Brett Okamoto of ESPN.
Whittaker did not lose his belt for pulling out of the fight. However, Gastelum believes he should be the middleweight title holder, per MMA Fighting, and even held up a title belt at a press conference:
MMAFighting.com.@KelvinGastelum declares himself the true #UFC middleweight champion following Robert Whittaker’s withdrawal at #UFC234: "I'm the champ…I showed up to fight.