After 'sh-tty, sh-tty weekend' at UFC 183, Kelvin Gastelum hopes for return to 170

Kelvin Gastelum was no stranger to missing weight when he headed into fight week for UFC 183 in January.

But what was in front of him for his fight against Tyron Woodley was like nothing he’d been through before. Coming in a pound and a half heavy for his fight against Nico Musoke in June 2014 was one thing. He rebounded by making weight, then choking out Jake Ellenberger his next time out.

But for the Woodley fight, Gastelum didn’t just miss weight – he obliterated the welterweight mark, coming in nine pounds heavy at 180 pounds. To top it off, he was under the weather and fought anyway, at a catchweight, and suffered the first loss of his career with Woodley took a split decision in Las Vegas.

After the fight, Gastelum had to endure the questions about missing weight without noted MMA nutritionist Mike Dolce by his side. And he had to endure questions about his first loss. And he had to endure hearing about Woodley saying he didn’t want 20 percent of Gastelum’s purse for missing weight – that he’d rather the young fighter learn a lesson from it.

And then he had to endure his boss, UFC President Dana White, saying if he was to stick around in the UFC, it would have to be at middleweight.

“I want to put that whole experience behind me and learn from it – but just put it behind me,” Gastelum recently told MMAjunkie Radio. “It was a horrible weekend for me. It was a close decision. I was sick. I shouldn’t have taken the fight, but I took it anyway. I just want to put it behind me. It was a sh-tty, sh-tty weekend – you guys have no idea.”

Putting the Woodley experience behind him now involves fighting 15 pounds heavier at middleweight, where he started his career. Gastelum (10-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC) next week fights Nate Marquardt (33-14-2 MMA, 11-7 MMA) on the main card at UFC 188, which takes place June 13 in Mexico City Arena in Mexico City. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on FX and UFC Fight Pass.

After winning Season 17 of “The Ultimate Fighter” in a fairly major upset against Uriah Hall, Gastelum has slowly worked his way up the ladder. His win over Ellenberger was a signature victory, but things came crashing down a bit against Woodley.

Now he has the opportunity to turn things back around against Marquardt, a former Strikeforce welterweight champ and onetime UFC middleweight title challenger. If things go well, fans may see the continued growth of the 23-year-old.

“I’m still learning,” he said. “I’m still very, very young. I’m still growing as a person and as an athlete. I’ve learned a lot and I feel like I’m barely scratching the surface as to what my real potential is, and I feel great.”

Gastelum said he’s not sure just how soon he might return to welterweight, where he wants to be, and where he has proven he can make weight, even if not consistently.

But 170 pounds is where he ultimately plans to make his biggest contributions to the fight game.

“That’s my plan. I’ve got to convince the boss and put on a good performance and hopefully Dana allows me to go back down,” Gastelum said. “He’s the one who forced me (to go up to middleweight), so I’ve got to work with him to let me go back down to welterweight.”

And when that time potentially comes, there will be the inevitable questions of whether he’ll employ Dolce again to help him get there. There was a much publicized perceived beef between Gastelum and Dolce that the fighter says was a mere misunderstanding.

But with a new management team in place, he said the Dolce issue is in the past. He also said he realized trying to do for himself what Dolce brought to the table wasn’t as easy as he thought. it would be.

“Working with Dolce was awesome – I have no issues with Dolce,” he said. “We just had some issues with my old manager and (Dolce) being paid. There were just some issues, and some conflicts, and I didn’t continue working with Dolce because of that. I wanted to, but things got in the way. There was a lot of miscommunication. But Dolce got paid, and we’re on good terms now. I thought I could do it on my own. Before I got in the UFC, I knew nothing about nutrition. After I worked with Dolce, I thought I could handle it myself – but it’s hard.”

Time will tell just when Gastelum might attempt a return to welterweight. But for the foreseeable future, the “TUF” winner, who recently coached the second “Latin America” version of the show, has another hard task ahead of him in Marquardt. A win in Mexico, where he beat Ellenberger, could be his latest career-definer.

For complete coverage of UFC 188, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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