Why is there an interim middleweight title at UFC 236?

What has led us to the UFC 236 co-main event, featuring Kelvin Gastelum facing Israel Adesanya for the interim UFC middleweight championship?

UFC 236 will feature two interim title fights, with the co-main event seeing Kelvin Gastelum taking on Israel Adesanya with the interim UFC middleweight championship on the line.

An interim championship has been deemed needed due to the recovery of current UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker from emergency surgery. Whittaker was scheduled to defend the championship against Gastelum in the main event of UFC 234 back in February. Hours before the event, however, it was announced Whittaker would not be able to compete due to a hernia suffered the night before.

During the event, Gastelum wished Whittaker a speedy recovery but proceeded to call himself the champion, going around and posing with a UFC championship belt that was actually Henry Cejudo’s.

UFC 234’s planned co-main event — a past vs. present battle of strikers between Anderson Silva and Adesanya — was moved up to the main event. Adesanya came away with a unanimous decision, and not long after, the UFC booked the two to compete for the interim championship. The winner will earn the right to unify with Whittaker, which is expected later this year.

Whittaker has not made an official defense of his championship and did not even win it inside the Octagon. Whittaker defeated Yoel Romero for the interim championship at UFC 213 but was only promoted to full-time champion in December 2017, following Georges St Pierre’s surrender of the title due to colitis.

Whittaker was scheduled to defend against Luke Rockhold at UFC 221 but was forced out with a staph infection. Romero instead defeated Rockhold in an interim title fight, but he was ineligible to win the title due to missing weight. Still, Romero got a title shot against Whittaker at UFC 225, but Romero missed weight again, changing the bout to a non-title one. Whittaker won the highly-praised fight by a controversial decision.

Gastelum comes into this championship bout off back-to-back victories, scoring a first-round knockout over Michael Bisping at UFC Shanghai in November 2017, earning a performance bonus, and a unanimous decision over Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza in UFC 224’s Fight of the Night.

Since coming over to the UFC at UFC 221 and focusing on MMA full-time, Adesanya is 15-0 in professional MMA and 5-0 in the UFC, with victories over Silva, Derek Brunson and Brad Tavares. Adesanya has three performance bonuses and one Fight of the Night with the promotion.

UFC 236 takes place on Saturday, April 13, 2019, live from the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia. Follow along with FanSided MMA, who will be cageside, for all your live results and highlights throughout the week.