Why – despite a battered reputation – UFC 206's Kelvin Gastelum is still planning a future at 170

TORONTO – Kelvin Gastelum admitted that his latest in a long line of weight-cutting gaffes was a tough one – one that seriously ruined his reputation. But he’s not ready to concede just yet.

Prior to November’s UFC 205 event, Gastelum had officially missed weight for two UFC welterweight fights and nearly missed it on a few other occasions. But on the eve of UFC 205, the 25-year-old’s struggles reached an all-time low when he didn’t even weigh in for a planned fight with Donald Cerrone because he was so over the 171-pound limit.

The fight was scrapped, and UFC President Dana White then vowed Gastelum (12-2 MMA, 7-2 UFC) would never again fight at 170 pounds. So, on Saturday, he heads to middleweight for a pay-per-view main-card bout with Tim Kennedy (18-5 MMA, 3-1 UFC) at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre.

But if it’s up to Gastelum, whose management team scrambled so he could get out of a suspension and fight Kennedy on Saturday, it might be just a temporary move.

“I’m a human being just like you, and I make mistakes,” he told MMAjunkie.

The chief mistake, he said, was piling on the pounds while out of camp. Once his pre-fight preparations began, he had to both train and cut “more than 35 pounds” during an eight-week camp. It was too big of a task, and Gastelum, who’s an honorable mention in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA welterweight rankings, again became the target of fans’ and even fellow fighters’ criticisms.

Still, “I wasn’t sitting back eating burgers like everyone thinks,” he said.

But, he admitted, he dug himself a hole he just couldn’t get out of. However, he said he wants to move back to welterweight, and “it’s just a matter of me changing my lifestyle outside of camp and not being 40 or 50 pounds above my weight class.

“That just makes my job harder on me. That’s my fault. I take full responsibility for it. It’s just a matter of me changing my lifestyle out of camp, and I’m going to do it.

Check out the full conversation above.

For more on UFC 206, check out the UFC Rumors section of MMAjunkie.