Kelvin Gastelum announced that he is officially moving to the UFC’s welterweight division after spending the majority of his tenure competing at middleweight.
Gastelum burst into the UFC in 2013, winning season 17 of The Ultimate Fighter. Since then, Gastelum has primarily competed in the 185-pound weight class, though he has dabbled in the welterweight division with mixed results. After failing to reach the pinnacle at middleweight, Gastelum revealed that he is moving down to 170 in order to make one more run at a UFC championship.
“I am making an official announcement. An official drop down to 170. Expect my next fight to be at 170,” Gastelum revealed on social media. “I’m going to get shredded, I hope and I think I can make another title run at that weight class. I think I can make it Why this time and why now and why not before? It’s just like I said, this is a second chance. This is a renaissance in my career. This is a rebirth
“Before I was young, I was dumb, I was stupid,” Gastelum continued. “Undisciplined. But now that I’m older, hopefully a little bit more mature, and smarter. Hopefully. Everybody knows this has always been my weight class to go to, but it really just takes me to decide that I want to do it and now I decide that I want to do it and I’m going to do it.”
Official announcement ‼️ pic.twitter.com/ZKVwhhBJY2
— #OnAmission4Gold (@KelvinGastelum) May 11, 2023
After defeating Uriah Hall to win The Ultimate Fighter as a middleweight, Kelvin Gastelum immediately moved down to welterweight but quickly displayed difficulty making the weight. He came in overweight for bouts against Nico Musoke and Tyron Woodley, prompting his eventual return to the middleweight division at UFC 206.
In 2019, Gastelum squared off with Israel Adesanya for the interim middleweight title at UFC 236. He came up short, losing via unanimous decision. Since then, he has dropped five of his last seven bouts, including defeats at the hands of Darren Till, Jack Hermansson, Robert Whittaker, and Jared Cannonier.
