Former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping on Saturday night has been knocked out by American fighter Kelvin Gestalum.
He lost to KO at 2:37 of the first round against Gastelum in the main fight of UFC Fight Night 122 presented in Shanghai, China, just 21 days after losing his title to Georges St-Pierre.
Gestalum, who was originally scheduled to face Anderson Silva before he failed an anti-doping test, first hit target with a straight line, before knocking out bisping with a powerful hook. It was finished.
“I just want to say congratulations to Kelvin Gastelum. Job well done tonight, I was enjoying myself and he touched me with a good shot. It’s been a long time since I’m doing this, I’m getting older, I’m getting older.” Bisping said after the fight.
“Kelvin has been good, but it’s going to take a lot more than that to get rid of me,” added the man who is intent on fighting one last time in front of his team in England before retiring.
Gestalum, meanwhile, said he was never really going to win this fight but he confident he will fight good and win tonight.
“It’s the biggest win of my carrer! I’m gonna try not to get emotional. I have a huge amount of respect for Bisping.” Gastelum said after the win.
“That’s something we trained a lot. He throws a mean left hook and an awesome straight right, so that’s something we worked on a lot.” he added.
Kelvin Gestalum wants to fight middleweight champion Robert Whittaker. (Source:www.sherdog.com)
The 26-year-old fighter went to ask for a shot at interim champion Robert Whittaker at UFC 221 in February in Australia.
“Well, I heard rumor that Robert Whittaker (the interim middleweight champion) is looking for an opponent for fight in Australia next February. I’m up for the challenge.” Gestalum said.
On the other side, in the face of King of Kungfu, Muslim Salikhov, Alex Garcia had to show wisdom and patience.
Garcia turned out to have a solid plan for shouting down the highly touted newcomer Salikov. Using a game plan that wanted to be safe against a fighter who made his debut in the UFC, Garcia quickly put Salikov in uncomfortable position, scoring two hits on the ground in the first round.
Then, while his opponent repeatedly tried to shake him with one of his famous inverted kicks, Garcia again showed patience before synchronizing a third ground projection before moving on with a throttle back of which Russian fighter could no longer escape.
