Kelvin Gastelum will return to the Octagon in three weeks at UFC 244 against Darren Till, and he hopes to be in better condition than he was in his last Octagon outing.
At UFC 236, Israel Adesanya and Kelvin Gastelum took part in a fight that many still believe is the frontrunner for fight of the year. The final outcome saw The Last Stylebender with his hand raised and take home with him the interim middleweight championship. In a recent TMZ video, Henry Cejudo stated that Gastelum entered that bout at less than 100%. When asked about the truth of that remark, Gastelum confirmed Cejudo’s claim:
“I wasn’t,” Gastelum said when asked if he was 100% ahead of UFC 236. “People don’t really know that, and I don’t come out in the media and say that, but, yeah, I was sick for about two weeks. I got the staph. It came back from when I had it in Australia…had the staph, had congestion in my lungs, so I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t really breathe. I was throwing up, so I couldn’t really train for about two weeks. People don’t really know: I stopped taking antibiotics six, seven days before the fight.
“People don’t really know it, but I was probably 60%, 70% for the fight.”
Israel Adesanya won the bout via unanimous decision in what was a war to behold, leaving Gastelum’s title hopes on pause. Gastelum will look to revive his status in the middleweight title picture on November 2nd in Madison Square Garden when he battles Darren Till.
What do you make of Kelvin Gastelum stating that he was 60% or 70% heading into his fight against Israel Adesanya?
