The UFC’s September 16th Fight Night show is set to celebrate Mexican Independence Day, and the card will have a baffling co-main event.
Wednesday, announced UFC President Dana White that The Ultimate Fighter 17 Winner Kelvin Gastelum (17-8, 1NC) will return to the welterweight class to take on Kazakhstan’s Shavkat Rakhmonov (17-0).
The card is set at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“We’re going to build the coolest card for September 16th,” White promised, touting the fact that the title fight-themed show will be free to ESPN+ subscribers.
Gastelum comes off a Fight of the Night win against Chris Curtis at UFC 287 in April. The fight took place in the middleweight class, the same weight class that saw Gastelum take the TUF crown, where he has competed since 2016.
The 31-year-old dropped down to welterweight upon entering the UFC, in a race plagued by weight-related struggles. Three complete misses in attempts to overcome the welterweight limit led to Dana White claiming that Gastelum would never be allowed to compete at 170 pounds again.
Rachmanov has been a wrecking machine in the UFC welterweight division since joining the promotion in 2020. He has a 5-0 record in the company with five finishes and three post-fight bonuses. Most recently, Jeff Neal performed in the winning effort at Battle of the Night.
The 28-year-old Rakhmonov is currently ranked sixth in the promotion’s welterweight division. Kelvin Gastelum is ranked No. 12, albeit in the middleweight division.
The UFC’s Fight Night card is set for September 16, 2023 on ESPN+, as women’s flyweight champion Alexa Grasso has her reboot with Valentina Shevchenko in the main event. The following matches have been reported for the card:
- Alexa Grasso (c) vs. Valentina Shevchenko – For the UFC Women’s Flyweight Championship
- Shavkat Rachmanov vs. Kelvin Gastelum
- Chris Curtis vs. Anthony Hernandez
- Lupita Godinez vs. Sam Hughes