Kelvin Gastelum News

Justin Golightly - November 24, 2017

Today at the weigh-ins for UFC Shanghai, Kelvin Gastelum missed weight on his first attempt. Don’t worry, he was able to weigh at 186lbs for his middleweight fight with Michael Bisping tomorrow on his second trip to the scale. However, it’s ironically not the weight that everyone is focused on. We aren’t passing any judgments, but unless it’s some sort of optical illusion, Kelvin Gastelum seems to have grabbed onto the towel on his initial attempt and tugged at it. He still missed weight by a pound so it doesn’t even matter, but still, it looked like he was taking a page out of Daniel Cormier’s book.

Justin Golightly - November 18, 2017

Eager to get the bad taste of his loss to Georges St-Pierre out of his mouth, Michael Bisping jumped at the chance to replace Anderson Silva’s spot against Kelvin Gastelum. He has stated that he’ll be retiring in England next year, but decided to squeeze one more in there. Despite ultimately being finished by St-Pierre, Bisping’s coach goes on record saying he think Gastelum is a tougher fight. “Really, Kelvin [Gastelum] is, in my opinion, on the feet, a tougher fight than Georges St-Pierre. It’s not like Mike’s a guy that shoots and wrestles all the time so obviously it’s gonna be a lot of stand up fighting and this guy’s a bigger threat than I think that even Georges was. This guy’s got a different mind frame. Is it gonna hurt or help him? We’re gonna’ find out. You can look at it both ways. I’m looking that it’s a good thing that Michael wants to do. It’s something that he’s very happy about the decision that he made to do this, so we’ve got to ride that positive mind into this fight and hope for the best.”

Justin Golightly - November 18, 2017

Kelvin Gastelum was originally supposed to fight the legend Anderson Silva in the main even of UFC Shanghai, but Silva’s flagging by USADA took away that opportunity. Luckily, perhaps an even more high profile match-up landed in Gastelum’s lap. Michael Bisping wanted to bounce right back from his loss to Georges St-Pierre at UFC 217, so he offered to step up short notice against the middleweight contender. Gastelum feels like a possible win over Bisping could finally get him close to the gold belt. “Yes. If I win this fight [with Michael Bisping], it will put me up high in the rankings and hopefully in the conversations to fight for the title. That’s ultimately my goal. I feel like if I win this fight then I might have tarnished those plans and I might’ve just permanently put myself in the position where I’ll be fighting for the middleweight title. If I get to fight for the middleweight title, then that’s ideal but I also feel like if I do the right things and I’m able to make the 170 safely and healthy, then I can do it and I want to fight for that title too.” — Kelvin Gastelum speaking on the UFC Shanghai conference call. 

Justin Golightly - November 18, 2017

Jorge Masvidal does not like Michael Bisping. Like, at all. It’s not just the trash talk that gets under Masvidal’s skin, whatever bad feelings he may have had toward the former UFC middleweight champion were magnified tenfold after Bisping desecrated the Cuban flag cageside. Combined with his friendship with Yoel Romero, this makes any situation volatile, as we saw when the two nearly came to blows recently. It’s all those reasons why Masvidal is willing to fight Bisping as a replacement if somehow Kelvin Gastelum can’t make it. “I think if Kelvin Gastelum doesn’t make weight, I’ll step right in. That’s what I like to do. I like to fight, so if that happens, if you know, I’m going to be praying that Gastelum eats too much dessert or something. I think [Michael] Bisping will win. Even though I don’t like him too much as a person, I think Bisping will win. Me personally, I just don’t like Bisping because we’ve had problems in real life, I just don’t like. If I could fight him in the Whole Foods parking lot I would. Any Aussie super market. I would fight that guy for a parking spot, that’s how much I don’t like him.” — Jorge Masvidal speaking at the UFC Sydney Q & A. 

Tom Taylor - November 13, 2017

If things had gone according to plan, the UFC’s November 26 debut in Shanghai, China, would have been headlined by a middleweight scrap between former champion Anderson Silva and dangerous contender Kelvin Gastelum. Regrettably, a potential USADA violation recently forced Silva out of this planned contest, leaving the UFC with mere weeks to find a replacement opponent for Gastelum. Enter Michael Bisping who, until UFC 217 earlier this month, owned the UFC middleweight crown. Just weeks after losing his title to resurgent former welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, Bisping stepped up to replace Silva, saving the UFC’s debut in the largely untapped stronghold of mainland China.

Chris Taylor - November 11, 2017

Perennial UFC middleweight contender Kelvin Gastelum has received a new opponent for UFC Shanghai. Not even a full week after losing his UFC middleweight title to Georges St-Pierre via third-round stoppage, Michael “The Count” Bisping has agreed to fight Kelvin Gastelum in the main event of UFC Shanghai in just two weeks time. MMAFighting’s Ariel Helwani just broke the news.

Justin Golightly - November 11, 2017

News broke yesterday that Anderson Silva has been pulled from his fight with Kelvin Gastelum at UFC Shanghai due to a possible anti-doping violation. Gastelum said he is staying on the card, but the fight is just two weeks away and that makes it difficult to find a replacement. That is, unless Mike Perry hears the news. The surging welterweight contender is willing to jump up to middleweight and step in to fight Gastelum. Chin check @KelvinGastelum before Pinocchio @Abraham_kawa ? https://t.co/QEDGFnIC5y

Justin Golightly - November 10, 2017

As if we didn’t have enough chaos going on right now in the MMA world, Anderson Silva has been notified of a potential anti-doping violation. This is Anderson Silva’s second time being flagged by USADA, the first time was back in 2015 after his fight with Nick Diaz at UFC 183. He was suspended for a whole year, fined his $200K win bonus and 30-percent of his $600K was taken. He still has his day in court, but if the tests prove to be accurate then he’ll face an even stiffer punishment this second time around.  Breath……..inhale ……….exhale 😭 https://t.co/BTemZm5xeT

Chris Taylor - October 22, 2017

Kelvin Gastelum believes that Santiago Ponzinibio will “sleep” Mike Perry when the welterweight contenders square off at UFC on FOX 26 in Winnipeg on December 16. The former Ultimate Fighter winner, Gastelum, took to Twitter earlier today where he voiced his opinion on the Ponzinibio vs. Perry matchup.

Tom Taylor - September 25, 2017

A exatos dois meses do #UFCXangai , as estrelas da luta principal do evento @spiderandersonsilva e @kgastelum estão na China promovendo o evento e protagonizaram a primeira encarada em frente a um dos cartões postais da região, a Torre Pérola Oriental! 🕷️🇨🇳 A post shared by UFC (@ufc_brasil) on Sep 25, 2017 at 5:49am PDT

Chris Taylor - August 16, 2017

Former UFC middleweight kingpin Anderson Silva will throw down with perennial division contender Kelvin Gastelum on November 25 in Shanghai, China. Kelvin Gastelum just took to Instagram where he announced the fight as official.

Russell Ess - August 10, 2017

The MMA community has been patiently waiting for the return of the former middleweight king Anderson Silva. On Thursday, Damon Martin reporting for FloCombat stated that their sources confirmed that the former UFC middleweight champion is being targeted to fight Kelvin Gastelum at the UFC Shanghai card, which will be the first UFC event taking place in mainland China. The UFC Shanghai event is scheduled to take place on November 25.

Chris Taylor - July 23, 2017

Former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman picked up a much needed win in the main event of last night’s UFC on FOX 25 event on Long Island, submitting surging division contender Kelvin Gastelum in the third-round. The victory snapped a three-fight losing skid for the “All American”, as Weidman had previously suffered knockout losses to Luke Rockhold, Yoel Romero and Gegard Mousasi respectively.

Chris Taylor - July 23, 2017

Kelvin Gastelum (13-3, 1 no-contest) suffered a third-round submission loss to former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman in the main event of UFC on FOX 25 last night on Long Island, New York. The setback snapped Gastelum’s impressive three-fight win streak, which had seen Kelvin score TKO victories over Tim Kennedy and Vitor Belfort, as well as a decision win over former welterweight champion Johny Hendricks.

Chris Taylor - July 22, 2017

A key middleweight scrap between former division champion Chris Weidman and surging contender Kelvin Gastelum served as the main event of tonight’s UFC on FOX 25 fight card from Long Island, New York. Round one begins and Weidman looks absolutely huge compared to Kelvin. Gastelum takes the center of the octagon. Weidman throws a high kick but it is blocked with ease by Kelvin. A straight right hand finds a home for Weidman. He follows that up with a front kick to the body. Gastelum with a left hook that misses and Weidman scores a nice right hand. Chris shoots in and scores an easy takedown. He works a couple of short shots before Kelvin stands back up. Weidman drags Kelvin back to the floor and winds up in side control. Weidman begins working for a kimura but when he tries to extend the arm Kelvin is able to scramble back up to his feet. Kelvin partially lands a head kick. He seems to have gained some confidence now. He lands a right hook and then a straight left that floors Weidman. He hops on him with ground and pound before the horn sounds to end round one.

bjpenndotcom - July 19, 2017

UFC middleweight Kelvin Gastelum has been on a tear recently. After dropping a split decision to Neil Magny at the TUF Latin America 2 Finale, Gastelum bounced back by picking up a unanimous decision win over Johny Hendricks at UFC 200. Following that, Gastelum returned to middleweight and picked up a 3rd round TKO win over Tim Kennedy in what would end up being Kennedy’s final fight. Most recently, Gastelum picked up a dominant 1st round KO win over Vitor Belfort at ‘UFC Fight Night: Fortaleza’, extending his win streak to three, however the win was overturned to a no contest after Gastelum tested positive for marijuana. It was that same drug testing failure that also resulted in Gastelum being pulled from his scheduled scrap with Anderson Silva.

bjpenndotcom - May 12, 2017

Last year, UFC welterweight Kelvin Gastelum made the move to middleweight after proving to be inconsistent at making the welterweight limit of 170 pounds. Gastelum picked up a major TKO win over Tim Kennedy at UFC 206 in December of 2016 to pick up a major win in his middleweight debut. Most recently, Gastelum stepped into the Octagon against Vitor Belfort at ‘UFC Fight Night: Fortaleza’, where he picked up a 1st round TKO win before the win was ultimately overturned to a no contest after Gastelum failed a fight night drug test for marijuana.

bjpenndotcom - May 9, 2017

The Ultimate Fighter winner Kelvin Gastelum recently found himself making headlines for the wrong reasons when it was announced in early April that he had been pulled from his scheduled UFC 212 showdown with Anderson Silva for a failed fight night drug test following his win over Vitor Belfort. Gastelum failed the fight night drug test for marijuana, and was subsequently pulled from the bout before being handed a 90 day suspension from the Brazilian sport court. The commission released a statement through MMAFighting, in which it was revealed that Gastelum allegedly changed his story regarding the failed drug test, saying: