Kelvin Gastelum Out of Shavkat Rakhmonov Clash Booked for UFC Fight Night 227

Sept. 16’s UFC Fight Night 227 Las Vegas card lost one of its protagonists after Kelvin Gastelum suffered an injury in training.

Gastelum (18-8, 1NC; 12-8, 1NC UFC) took to his social media accounts to announce his assignment was off. According to the fighter, he suffered fractures following an elbow strike in training. The Fight Ready representative was scheduled to compete at 170 for the first time since moving up to middleweight in 2016. Gastelum picked up a victory in his latest foray, a unanimous decision win over Chris Curtis at UFC 287, bouncing back after back-to-back defeats at the hands of Robert Whittaker and Jared Cannonier.

“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 have to apologize to everybody who was excited about this fight. I apologize to everybody. I apologize to Rakhmonov and his team. I feel bad. I feel very horrible about this unfortunate incident. I’ll be back. I’m still going to continue training. I can still do my strength and conditioning training, movement, I can still do a lot of my training... I asked to move it up to November. Hopefully they will grant me this wish. That will be Nov. 11 in Madison Square Garden. It’s hard to be a Kelvin Gastelum fan sometimes, I know. We go through ups and downs together, but I promise we’re fighting to get back on the horse and get back on that winning streak and continue it.”