I was wrong about Kelvin Gastelum

[DOMMA]

I've been saying for the past several years that if Gastelum dropped down to 170 he would be an immediate title contender. He was to small for 185 and lost to the top guys. I felt certain that at 170# he would be a top contender but he was beaten badly this past Saturday at Welterweight. He’s now lost three of his last four and six of his last eight. At 32 Gastelum needs a win to stay on the roster, thoughts of him winning or fighting for a Welterweight title are gone.

Anyone else think this guy could make a legit title run at Welterweight?

 

[KAZSoliloquy]

future million dollar pfl winner

 

[JoeRowe]

I believed until this last fight. Either weight class he is a fringe top 15 guy, Title hopes are done for sure.

I have him fighting Chiesa next, who is on a 3-fight skid himself.

 

[blaseblase]

He could have gotten a title shot during the Woodley era but there are too many good wrestlers at 170 now.

 

[AmonTobin]

Yup. I thought he was going to come down and smash. Sad to see how it turned out this weekend.

 

[VinceArch]

His best bet was against Izzy a few years back. He gave Izzy a very entertaining war but not everyone is going to be champion in MMA. Even earlier when he was still fighting at 170 his title run was never going to happen when he said he won't go on a diet and was even nonchalant about missing weight more than once. I'd never want a champion with that kind of mindset.

 

[maximus__]

I've been saying for the past several years that if Gastelum dropped down to 170 he would be an immediate title contender. He was to small for 185 and lost to the top guys. I felt certain that at 170# he would be a top contender but he was beaten badly this past Saturday at Welterweight. He’s now lost three of his last four and six of his last eight. At 32 Gastelum needs a win to stay on the roster, thoughts of him winning or fighting for a Welterweight title are gone.

Anyone else think this guy could make a legit title run at Welterweight?

It's like he just doesn't train at all or something.

He showed he had cardio issues when he coached opposite Whittaker on TUF.
He didn't manage his weight and now he is an undersized WW after having the same issue at MW.
His skillset has completely stagnated, he can box but has so many losses due to a lack of wrestling or BJJ fundamentals, with wrestling being his original base.

Crazy to think he took Izzy to the death, but makes more sense now after Stricklanf also boxed him up.

 

[Kevin Sorbo]

Fuck, i didn't know he is only 32. Dude has had a lot of wear and tear for a guy that young. Dude's been fighting mostly nothing but top guys for a decade now in the ufc.

 

[Viking Power]

He spent too many prime years being a fat WW fighting at 185.

 

[TheMMAnalyst]

I think most of us made the incorrect calculation that he wasn't motivated based on his body fat; he looked like a chubby MW, so we figured if he was a shredded WW that would mean he was actually training hard.

Instead it appears at MW he had a clear speed advantage over almost everyone, because despite being stocky and a little chubby he was the smaller, quicker man in there. At WW that speed advantage has turned to dust and now he's got less strength, power, and durability on top of fighting far more skilled fighters at WW.

Styles make fights and his style at MW doesn't work at WW because it's predicated on having a huge edge in foot speed and hand speed, so that he can easily avoid takedown entries and surprise guys with blitzes.

If you take away those edges he's relatively easy to takedown and control, and those blitzes are going to be fewer and far less shocking than before.

 

[ExitLUPin]

Kelvin got outgrappled and lost to Neil Magny at WW in his prime. He shouldve lost to Story too and got dropped bad in that one. Hes also Weidmans only finish win in like the last decade. Hermannson tapped him in a minute.

Can we finally stop pretending Kelvin was ever this future champ? it was always ridiculous. He fought TWood to a boring shitty SD when he missed weight by a mile and people thought hed be champ. LMAO

 

[textwarrior]

I've been saying for the past several years that if Gastelum dropped down to 170 he would be an immediate title contender. He was to small for 185 and lost to the top guys. I felt certain that at 170# he would be a top contender but he was beaten badly this past Saturday at Welterweight. He’s now lost three of his last four and six of his last eight. At 32 Gastelum needs a win to stay on the roster, thoughts of him winning or fighting for a Welterweight title are gone.

Anyone else think this guy could make a legit title run at Welterweight?

let him adjust for a few more.

 

[Ace70 V2]

I've been saying for the past several years that if Gastelum dropped down to 170 he would be an immediate title contender. He was to small for 185 and lost to the top guys. I felt certain that at 170# he would be a top contender but he was beaten badly this past Saturday at Welterweight. He’s now lost three of his last four and six of his last eight. At 32 Gastelum needs a win to stay on the roster, thoughts of him winning or fighting for a Welterweight title are gone.

Anyone else think this guy could make a legit title run at Welterweight?

I don't think you were wrong. I think the problem is years have passed by and it's too late for him now.

 

[GolovKing]

I don't mean to shit on you but anyone who thought gastelum was champ material has no clue what the fuck they are looking at. And while we are on the subject, the same could be said about people who were hyping up Beniel dariush too. Just why? How could you simply look past so many glaring weaknesses that have always been there?

 

[josh345]

I think he has a lot of mileage on him. Also the war with Izzy maybe took a toll on him? He's only 32 though which is crazy. But he's been doing it a long time had lots of fights

 

[PabloMEX]

BKFC is next.

 

[GolovKing]

Kelvin got outgrappled and lost to Neil Magny at WW in his prime. He shouldve lost to Story too and got dropped bad in that one. Hes also Weidmans only finish win in like the last decade. Hermannson tapped him in a minute.

Can we finally stop pretending Kelvin was ever this future champ? it was always ridiculous. He fought TWood to a boring shitty SD when he missed weight by a mile and people thought hed be champ. LMAO

I love coming back to this video every now and then and just reading the comments. People really thought he would beat Usman back then, like he was uncrowned champ of 170

 

[Clark Rogers]

Fuck, i didn't know he is only 32. Dude has had a lot of wear and tear for a guy that young. Dude's been fighting mostly nothing but top guys for a decade now in the ufc.

Same boat. Feels like he's been around forever at this point.

 

[maximus__]

I think most of us made the incorrect calculation that he wasn't motivated based on his body fat; he looked like a chubby MW, so we figured if he was a shredded WW that would mean he was actually training hard.

Instead it appears at MW he had a clear speed advantage over almost everyone, because despite being stocky and a little chubby he was the smaller, quicker man in there. At WW that speed advantage has turned to dust and now he's got less strength, power, and durability on top of fighting far more skilled fighters at WW.

Styles make fights and his style at MW doesn't work, because it's predicated on having a huge edge in foot speed and hand speed, so that he can easily avoid takedown entries and surprise guys with blitzes.

If you take away those edges he's relatively easy to takedown and control, and those blitzes are going to be fewer and far less shocking than before.

I am just going to come out and say that WW is a much harder division than MW. You have guys who would be around the 185-200 pound mark, managing their weight and cutting down to 170. The grapplers at 185 had nothing on 170 either as it's usually that premier weightclass for wrestling, once you cut down.

I can see why a guy like Bo Nickals has gone there, as opposed to cutting to 170 and risking running into a guy with enough wrestling to cause him problems and keep it on the feet after draining himself to 170.

Sad to see because I think KG could have done really well if he sorted his crap out post Izzy with the division wide open for him to have snuck in back then. Brady looked good, but the guy lacks killer instinct until he can ride out the rest of a fight on a decision win.

 

[CasualBot]

oh come on, did you see brady ?

never thought KG was champ material but brady was on a mission with the grappling.