The big question heading into the main event of UFC on ESPN 22 was not just who would win, but whether the winner would be sufficiently impressive to earn a rematch with Israel Adesanya.
With that in mind, former middleweight champ Robert Whittaker laid a fairly lopsided five-round beating on former title challenger Kelvin Gastelum, albeit with enough back-and-forth action to earn “Fight of the Night” honors. In the immediate wake of perhaps the best performance of Whittaker’s career, the UFC broadcast booth seemed to imply that Adesanya-Whittaker 2 was going to happen, as did “The Last Stylebender,” who sent Whittaker a congratulatory tweet with a little barb reminding him of the outcome of their first meeting.