Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is just over three months away from its UFC 200 pay-per-view (PPV) fight card, which takes place on Sat., July 9, 2016 inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
That means the fight announcements will slowly but surely start trickling in, including today’s welterweight pairing that pits former welterweight titleholder Johny Hendricks against The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 17 champion Kelvin Gastelum.
MMA Fighting brought word of the match up on Tuesday.
I know the phrase “must win” is thrown around with reckless abandon in most sports, but Hendricks (17-4) could be in big trouble if he’s unable to get himself back on track. Not only was he completely outclassed by Stephen Thompson at UFC Fight Night 82, his fight before that was canceled after a major weight-cutting fail.
“Bigg Rigg” is currently ranked No. 5 in the division.
Gastelum (11-2), on the other hand, still has room to grow at just 24 years old. After shutting down Nate Marquardt with a technical knockout win at UFC 188, the former middleweight dropped a close split decision to Neil Magny at UFC Fight Night 78.
Expect a close fight.
UFC 200 is on track to feature the welterweight rematch between Nate Diaz and Conor McGregor; however, nothing is official at this time.
Expect more fight card announcements in the coming weeks, if not days.