UFC 206: Kelvin Gastelum’s Last Chance

Amid UFC titles being relinquished and/or stripped, and interim titles being created out of thin air, due to another main event fighter getting injured and forced to withdraw from the card, another fight got added to UFC 206. Top middleweight Tim Kennedy is now currently scheduled to face the failed would-be welterweight contender Kelvin Gastelum. Gastelum was originally scheduled to fight Donald Cerrone at welterweight at UFC 205. That didn’t happen. Now, he’s fighting back up at middleweight against another top fighter. After his repeated mishaps, this fight is reasonably Gastelum’s last chance to prove he’s a professional. Right now, he certainly doesn’t come off like one.

According to the most recent report by ESPN, Gastelum worked out a deal with the New York State Athletic Commission to pay a fine of $2,000 as his most recent punishment. Originally, he was suspended for six months, which he planned to appeal. This is considerably less severe, and it allows Gastelum to move forward with his fight with Kennedy at UFC 206.

Gastelum was originally suspended not just for missing weight, but for failing to appear at the UFC 205 weigh-ins at all on November 11. In fact, he didn’t notify anybody that he wouldn’t be able to make weight. He didn’t notify the commission, Donald Cerrone or his camp, or the UFC. Instead, he retreated to Twitter, promising that this wouldn’t happen again. Yet, this was already his third indiscretion.

The reason I’m angry with Gastelum is not just because he did this for a third time. It’s because he took away Donald Cerrone’s opportunity to fight at UFC 205. Cerrone wanted very badly to fight on that card. Gastelum’s failure to report anything on his weight-cutting issues summarily killed any opportunity for Cerrone to fight on that card. Considering all Cerrone has done for this sport and the UFC, that’s unforgivable. Now, the benefit here is that Tim Kennedy does get a fight, after his fight with Rashad Evans has fallen off on two separate occasions; first at UFC 205 and again at UFC 206.

The problem with Gastelum is he was steadfast on remaining at welterweight because he believed he could be a welterweight title contender at 170 pounds. He claimed he’d either be a mediocre middleweight or a welterweight champion. Well guess what, Kelvin? While you may not yet be a mediocre middleweight, you definitely turned out to be a failure at welterweight. I’ve heard a number of rumors about Gastelum failing to make weight. I don’t know what’s true and what’s not. Yet, he continued to struggled. Despite those struggles and his previous two failures, that already cost him big time, he continued to operate under the belief that he was a welterweight. And then this latest boondoggle happens. Maybe it’s his lack of discipline with his nutritionist. In the past, Gastelum expressed that he stopped working with acclaimed and noted fighter nutritionist Mike Dolce because Dolce was “too expensive” (via MMAjunkie). OK, was cutting out that expense worth the two times you missed weight and were fined, losing out on extra purse money? Gastelum tried to do it his own way, and he’s failed several times now. Quite frankly, Gastelum is lucky he’s still on the roster. The UFC has cut fighters for less. Look no further than Anthony Johnson. He had many similar issues that Gastelum did, yet Johnson was convinced he should fight at lighter weights to be as big as possible. The benefit there is that it taught Johnson an important lesson. He stopped trying to cut 60 pounds during camp, and now he’s one of the top stars at light heavyweight after he fought his way back to the UFC.

Had Gastelum been let go after his indiscretion at UFC 205, it may not have been the worst thing for him. Obviously, UFC would be amenable to taking him back at some point if he were to clean up his act, and sometimes, fighters have to learn the hard way about cutting weight. Being the biggest guy possible at the lightest weight isn’t always going to give the fighter an advantage inside the Octagon. It certainly hasn’t been all that beneficial for Gastelum considering his rather mediocre run as a welterweight.

What makes this all the more frustrating is that Kelvin Gastelum is so clearly talented. I thought Gastelum was one of the more underrated talents on his season of The Ultimate Fighter. He came out of it looking very strong. I wasn’t against his move to welterweight, yet time and time again he continued to struggle. Maybe Gastelum is too small for middleweight, but he’s yet to lose a fight there. It just seems foolish to me. John Lineker and his manager, Alex Davis, for years refused to have Lineker move up, claiming he was way too small for bantamweight. Yet Lineker, missed weight at 125 pounds repeatedly. Call me or critics a keyboard warrior all you want. I’ve been called worse. However, these are perfect examples of how fighters or the managers do not necessarily know better than we do. Anthony Johnson is included in that mindset as well.

As far as UFC 206, a fighter moving up and missing weight isn’t unprecedented actually. Anthony Johnson, who missed weight more than once at 170 pounds, still missed weight when he was supposed to move up to middleweight. Even middleweight was too small for him. John Lineker? He missed weight *FOUR* times when he was supposed to be fighting at flyweight. After Lineker finally moved up, and looked pretty good at 135 pounds for a while, he missed weight for the *FIFTH* time in his UFC career UFC Fight Night 96, when he was scheduled to fight at bantamweight. So those are two guys who moved up in weight in the UFC and still missed the mark.

So, I would say UFC 206 is Gastelum’s last chance to really prove he’s not going to be another TUF washout. Despite a promising early start, he’s become a massive disappointment. Not to mention, he screwed over one of UFC’s premiere stars in Donald Cerrone at UFC 205. I’m not necessarily expecting Gastelum to beat Kennedy. But, I at least want him to act graciously and with some level of remorse over what he’s done. It’s also his last chance to accept that he’s not a welterweight, and through his own actions, that part of his career is long gone.

Jeffrey Harris is 411mania’s resident Jack of All Trades and has covered MMA for the site since 2008. You can shoot him an e-mail at [email protected] or hit him up on Facebook. He also co-hosts the 411 Ground & Pound Radio podcast along with Robert Winfree. You can listen to the latest episode of the podcast in the player below.