After winning Ultimate Fighter 17 tournament, Kelvin Gastelum running back and forth in welterweight and middleweight division. In January 2015, Gastelum clashed with UFC welterweight champion, Tyron Woodley at UFC 183 pay-per-view (PPV), but the bout was set at 180 pounds catchweight after Gastelum misses weight. It was a closely contested show, Woodley ended up winning via decision.
Gastelum has had a long history with missing weight in his run with the UFC. After this loss, he moved up to middleweight and most recently coming off a knock out win over former champion Michael Bisping.
Gastelum is scheduled to clash against Ronaldo Souza at UFC 224 next weekend, but he signaled his intentions to drop down to the 170-pound division to rematch with Woodley:
“Eventually, I’m going to be fighting for that title at middleweight, which is crazy,” Gastelum said in a recent media scrum in Los Angeles (Quotes via MMAjunkie). “But yeah, in my eyes, in the back of my head – way in the back of my head – I still have welterweight in mind.”
“That fight is like a splinter in my heart,” he added. “I kind of want to get that fight back – make the weight, make it right. In a lot of people’s eyes, including myself, I won that fight.”
As for his upcoming fight against “Jacare,” Gastelum feels as if he is already prepared the best as he could.
“You can only prepare and strategize the best you can, and I feel like I’ve done that,” Gastelum said. “I feel like I’m prepared to the best of my abilities for what he brings to the table.”
UFC 224 is set to take place on May 12th in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The main event features women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes will defend her title against Raquel Pennington.
