BREAKING: Kelvin Gastelum pulls out of bout with Shavkat Rakhmonov due to injury 

Kelvin Gastelum will not be competing against Shavkat Rakhmonov at the UFC Fight Night event on September 16. The former middleweight interim title challenger recently announced that he suffered a facial fracture during training. 

Gastelum was slated to face Rakhmonov in a welterweight contest at UFC’s Mexican Independence Day event. He would have been making his first outing at welterweight since July 2016, when he beat Johny Hendricks at UFC 200. 

In a recent video posted to his socials, Kelvin Gastelum announced the unfortunate news and revealed that he is trying to move his welterweight return to November 11. He said:

“Unfortunate news, my fight with Shavkat Rakhmonov is off. I received an elbow that resulted in an open fracture, and a few bones came out fractured… I apologize to Shavkat Rakhmonov and his team… And I asked to move it up to November. Hopefully, they will grant me this wish. That will be Nov. 11 in Madison Square Garden.”

While Shavkat Rakhmonov is unlikely to stay on the September 16 card, the promotion will attempt rebooking the matchup for UFC 294 on October 21 in Abu Dhabi. However, it’s unclear if Gastelum will be ready by then.

Shavkat Rakhmonov reacts to Kelvin Gastelum pulling out of their scheduled bout 

Shavkat Rakhmonov isn’t happy about Kelvin Gastelum pulling out of their fight. The undefeated phenom recently blasted the Mexican-American and called him out for a fight on October 21 instead. 

Rakhmonov is undoubtedly among the most exciting fighters to watch in the UFC today and the Uzbekistan native has an impressive record of 17-0. He last beat Geoff Neal at UFC 285 via third-round submission. His fight against Gastelum was to be his toughest test to date and would give him a chance to prove himself against a veteran of the sport. 

In a recent tweet, Rakhmonov blasted Kelvin Gastelum for pulling out and labeled him a “Pinata” while attempting to rebook their bout for UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi. He wrote:

“Pinata, I agreed to fight you on your territory on Mexican Independence Day in an arena full of your supporters and it’s not my problem you can’t do it now. It’s your turn to accept to fight me on my territory in Abu Dhabi at UFC 294! Or did you realize it was a bad idea just now?” 

He followed up with another tweet, stating:

“You forgot to mention you are struggling with diet too.”

Kelvin Gastelum is coming off a decision win against Chris Curtis at UFC 287, which stopped a two-fight losing slide against Robert Whittaker and Jared Cannonier.