In February 2019, Robert "Bobby Knuckles" Whittaker was set to defend his UFC Middleweight championship against Kelvin Gastelum in what would surely have been a blockbuster main event. Mere hours before the event was set to take place, Whittaker had to pull out of the show due to an abdominal hernia and a collapsed bowel and the fight was canceled.

Since then, the two men have traveled in alternate directions. Whittaker lost his championship in his return fight later that year against Israel Adesanya. At the time he blamed the defeat on his lengthy absence from fighting and difficulties in recuperating from his emergency surgery. At the time, it sounded a little like an excuse. He then went on to outpoint Darren Till and Jared Cannonier in 2020 and, by improving so much between each bout, it became clear Whittaker's reasoning was true.

As for Gastelum, he also lost to Adesanya – by split decision compared to Whittaker's hard KO loss – then lost to Darren Till and Jack Hermansson. Only a scrappy win over Ian Heinisch at UFC 258 this year kept him in the rankings.

On March 16, Whittaker's intended opponent Paulo Costa dropped out due to a severe bout of the flu and the fates aligned. Just over two years later, and in very different circumstances, Robert Whittaker would finally face Kelvin Gastelum.

Though Whittaker came into the fight as No. 1 in the rankings and Gastelum at No. 8, the former champion still had a lot of respect for his rival and spent the opening of Round 1 testing his range and quickly bouncing out of range any time Gastelum loaded up, with reason too – it only took one clean right to leave a welt on Whittaker's face.

Gastelum, three inches shorter than Whittaker, has a fairly squat frame. He's built like a tank and fights like one too. He held the center of the cage and forced Whittaker to the outside; this is usually a winning tactic. However, Bobby Knuckles's fight IQ is one of the best in the game. He didn't stop moving and was almost perpetually going laterally. Anybody who's seen a WWII movie will know tanks only really work going forwards and this constant rotation meant Gastelum couldn't fully engage.

Whittaker took him down with 90 seconds left in the round and Gastelum could only struggle to get out. That meant by the time the second round began Whittaker knew basically all his opponent's strength and weaknesses and he started truly fighting instead of testing.

From there, Rounds 2, 3 and the majority of 4 were pure kickboxing. Across those 15 minutes Whittaker was fighting a style of pure positive momentum. As each strike hit; as each punch from Gastelum was slipped, dodged or blocked; as each combination found its target, his confidence improved and then the next strike would hit faster, cleaner than the last; his movement would become more unorthodox and his combinations got bolder.

The sheer variety of what Knuckles was throwing was truly remarkable. Almost every attack was different from the last and they regularly found success. By Round 5, Gastelum was bleeding from his ear, had been out struck at least double in every round – UFCstats.com says Whittaker landed 150 overall compared to Gastelum's 62 – and totally given up his game plan. Whittaker had tagged him so many times while moving backwards that he realized pressure fighting was useless.

In this climactic round, Whittaker returned to the ground and took Gastelum down effortlessly twice. Bobby may have dominated on the feet but he still knew one heavy hand from Gastelum would ruin his night so forced his opponent on his back, where he knew he was useless. As time expired, commentator and former UFC Middleweight champions Michael Bisping described the performance as a "masterpiece" – he wasn't wrong.

Robert Whittaker won by unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 50-45) and left absolutely no doubt. He is next in line to get a title shot against Israel Adesanya. It's difficult to say if he'll get his revenge; Adesanya is much lankier and that massive range differential is what's put him head and shoulder above everyone else so far. Tonight, though, Whittaker was sensational, better than he's ever been before and should give the champion his toughest test.