Jared Cannonier and Kelvin Gastelum competed early this morning in a very important fight in the Middleweight (185 lbs, 83.91 kg) division of the UFC.

I'm a fan of many fighters in the UFC, but there's no doubt that I'm a fan of both of these fighters. Both well rounded and athletic. Still much of the time they enjoy striking, throwing good ole hands.

There are differences in these fighters though. Cannonier is more of a powerhouse type of fighter. Whereas Gastelum has a more athletic and explosive style.

Also, Cannonier is just a brick house at this weight class. Cannonier has fought at heavyweight and was a respectable fighter there. He has fought in heavyweight, and light heavyweight. Now he seems to have found a home at middleweight.

Cannonier is just built different compared to other fighters in the weight class. At middleweight he looks like a Greek god.

In contrast, Gastelum is more on the small side at middleweight. He has fought at welterweight before. Many believe he should really be fighting at that weight class to this day.

So, this is indeed a fight between a former welterweight vs a former heavyweight.

The fight itself

This was a pretty action packed fight. They were really striking like ninety-two percent of the time.

Gastelum preferred to be at range so he could land strikes and stay explosive. Cannonier was cool with it for the most part. He just stood his ground, like a mean buff zombie.

Really, this fight was pretty damn close. Pretty technical. Gastelum had a speed advantage overall, but as the fight went on the speed difference wasn't really all that noticeable. Gastelum fought a good fight, and stayed active. On the other hand Cannonier was clearly the more powerful guy throughout and pretty active himself.

Results: Cannonier wins by unanimous decision

My thoughts on the decision.

I agree with the decision, although I expected a split decision.

This fight will probably be hugely debated in the MMA community though. Gastelum was active and tried to push the pace, but his pace pushing attempts really just didn't work. Gastelum landed some hard looking shots here and there but overall Cannonier handled the pressure and activity, extremely well. Gastelum is explosive and likes to kind of be the bully in fights. He's a mean dude and a good striker.

But Gastelum's style just didn't have a real huge effect on Cannonier.

Cannonier was not quite as active but made up for that in several ways. First of all, Cannonier was quite active overall, just maybe not as much as Gastelum. There was never a moment where you thought Cannonier was getting 'beat up'.

I believe that Cannonier was the more threatening fighter, if that makes sense. He was obviously the more powerful guy. When he landed it was clearly more of a problem for Gastelum than vice versa.

The only knockdown that occurred in this fight, was accomplished by Cannonier.

Cannonier was efficiently active, more powerful, and scored the knockdown.

Gastelum landed a lot and whatnot, but it had minimal results on Cannonier. It seemed like acting almost. He performed really fast movements and combos, that looked kinda cool and stuff, but it was like a medium dog versus a big dog. Cannonier just kinda ate and blocked most of the shots like he was made of stone and kept doing his own work.

Great victory for Cannonier! I really like his style and his personality. He seems humble and cool. He seems to be learning from each fight and I can't wait to see who he matches up with next! There's a chance it could be for the title!

Src