Kelvin Gastelum wanted a match against Jared Cannonier, so he was excited to step in when Paulo Costa dropped out.
All eyes were on the main event of UFC 263, and no one was more interested than Kelvin Gastelum. Joining the media prior to the main event to give his predictions, Gastelum gave some insight into his own upcoming main event against Jared Cannonier at UFC Fight Night Vegas scheduled for August 21, 2021.
Gastelum joins the card as a replacement for Paulo Costa. Costa dropped from the fight for unconfirmed reasons, but Gastelum was not surprised and believes that his health and not money lead to the withdrawal.
“Costa is, uh, I have a lot of respect for him as a fighter. But I feel like, throughout his career, he’s been very injury-prone. So I felt like maybe for that fight, something would maybe happen.
And one of them would step out and definitely, you know, that happened. And unfortunately for Costa, he’s out, I’m in. This time I get a full camp, which I’m excited about.”
Gastelum is looking to get right back in the mix after, admittedly, his last outing didn’t pan out as he had hoped.
“There’s no easy fights once you break the top five and I fought them all, you know? And, you know, I just want my chance to prove myself. I know things haven’t gone my way, but I still believe in myself believe. I believe that I can get the job done to beat these guys. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t say it.”
Gastelum knows that he has work to do before a rematch with Whittaker.
As Gastelum prepares for Cannonier, he is looking ahead to a potential rematch with Robert Whitaker. Reflecting on their first bout, Gastelum knows there is work to be done.
“He (Whittaker) was just a step ahead the entire time and it really motivated me. It really lit a fire in me to know that man, I still have kind of a little bit of work to get to that kind of level.”
“He impressed me a lot. I didn’t think he was that good (chuckles). And looking back at the fight, it’s like, man, no one has ever done (that). I’ve never felt like that in a fight, you know, where, not even Israel Adesanya didn’t feel like that. He really frustrated me, really made me look bad. And he was just a step ahead of the entire fight.”