Kelvin Gastelum’s return to the welterweight did not play out the way he would expected it to be. The former middleweight interim title challenger took on Sean Brady in his return to the 170-pound division late last year at UFC Fight Night: Dariush vs Tsarukyan.
Gastelum had no answers for Brady’s wrestling as he dominated him on the ground through out the fight before submitting him in the third round to pick up the victory. The loss hurt Gastelum even more, considering he was promoted to a first degree black belt in 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu just week ahead of the fight.
Talking to Henry Cejudo on his YouTube channel, Kelvin Gastelum opened up on the loss and revealed how the stringent weight cut eventually led to his downfall against Sean Brady.
Kelvin Gastelum blames his camp for loss against Sean Brady.
After missing weight several times during his last run at the welterweight division, Kelvin Gastelum decided to move up a weight class. It was no different this time in his return to welterweight after almost eight years, and while Gastelum did make weight, he felt stepping on the scale became the entire focus of the fight camp.
“The majority camp was focused towards, losing the weight, rather than actually training for tyhe actual fight.” Gastelum said. “The camp was focused a lot on losing the weight rather than skill developing.” He further added.
Kelvin Gasteum shed almost 40 lbs in a matter of 8 weeks to make the welterweight limit. “we trained for the weight cut, but we didnt train for the fight.” This isn’t the first time that Gastelum has shocked fans with his massive weight transformation.
What’s next for Kelvin Gastelum?
There are a lot of exciting options for Kelvin Gastelum in the 170-pound division. Kelvin Gastelum against Stephen Thompson has a nice ring to it. And if Gastelum wants a crack at the surging welterweights, a fight against Rinat Fakhretdinov could be a good idea.
Kelvin Gastelum has lost six of his last eight fights, but that hardly speaks about the who’s who he has fought in his tenured mixed martial arts career. The list of names is quite long and includes multiple former UFC Champions.