UFC Vegas 24 went down last night (Sat., April 17, 2021) inside UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada, which saw Robert Whittaker defeat Kelvin Gastelum via unanimous decision in the main event of the evening (see it again here). In the co-main event, Andrei Arlovski got back on track with a good win over Chase Sherman in Heavyweight action.
Biggest Winner: Robert Whittaker
Whittaker got one step closer to earning a chance to reclaim his title after dominating Gastelum for five rounds to secure a unanimous decision win and his third straight victory. Since 2014 Whittaker has take on out some of the best the 185-pound division has to offer, only coming up short against current champion, Israel Adesanya in the last seven years. Thanks to his current run, his proven track record, No.1 ranking his win over Gastelum, it could be enough to earn a rematch against “The Last Stylebender,” much to the chagrin of Marvin Vettori, who took out Kevin Holland just last week at UFC Vegas 23 to earn his fifth straight win.
Runner Up: Andrei Arlovski
Arlovski got back on the winning track after scoring a big win over Sherman, a streaking Heavyweight who was riding a four fight win streak into the fight — all knockouts — and was inching closer to a spot in the Top 15. But Arlovski, the grizzled veteran who has been around the block a few times, wasn’t about to let “The Vanilla Gorilla” come up at his expense. With the win, “The Pitbull” picks up win number 20 inside the Octagon, tied with former Middleweight champion Michael Bisping for most as a UFC fighter. One more win will put Arlovski in his own club and give him another notch on his long and impressive resume that will one day land him in the Hall of Fame. For now, Arlovski is still chugging along at 42 and has no plans to let up anytime soon.
Biggest Loser: Abdul Razak Alhassan
After starting off his UFC career with an impressive 4-1 mark and building up a reputation as a fearsome knockout artist thanks to 10 first round finishes via strikes, Alhassan has now dropped three in a row. His latest defeat came at the hands of Jacob Malkoun via unanimous decision, a defeat that exposed his big weakness, which is wrestling. When Malkoun took him down, Alhassan looked like a fish out of water. And that’s just what Malkoun did, taking “Judo Thunder’s” tools away from him to win a clear-cut unanimous decision. While he’s exciting and powerful as it comes when he’s against someone willing to stand-and-bang with him, facing a good grappler is his downfall. Whether or not the promotion keeps him around after a three fight skid remains to be seen.
For complete UFC Vegas 24 results and coverage click HERE.