Exactly this. He was taking a fight against a high profile fighter as an underdog. There was an opportunity to win and improve his standing. Now he gets an unknown fighter who is ranked way below him. If he wins he was expected to. If he loses he lost to an unknown.
Of course there is money. A free fight card isn’t a high profile card. UFC 300 and cards with multiple titles on the line is a high profile card.
At least his is not having his camp washed down the drain though and he gets paid when he fights.
Besides that, he has already faced Adesanya 2x, Du Plessis, Costa, Vetorri, Cannonier etc…
Taking the replacement he doesn’t waste his camp and he stays in the good graces of the promotion for the next fight he is offered plus he gets paid. He can’t control who turned the fight down on short notice and I’m sure a few “names” did.
It makes sense why he took it. Killing main events is not good for a fighters career in the UFC.
Definitely some good aspects of it.
Ffs
I was looking forward to that piece of shit , one eyed, homophobic terrorist fighting a decent opponent and not a hand picked can, even tho the last guy was a can of sorts the last minute change will prob have a bad record and a walk over
His new opponent last weighted in at 200lbs…
He’s also partial to a cancelled fight and drugs suspension’s
Kelvin Gastelum continues to have issues on the scale.
Gastelum (18-9 MMA, 12-9 UFC) is scheduled to face Daniel Rodriguez (17-4 MMA, 7-3 UFC) in a welterweight bout on Saturday’s UFC on ABC 6 (ABC/ESPN/ESPN+) main card at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Gastelum, who moved up to middleweight after missing weight twice at 170 pounds, opted to move back down to welterweight in his most recent fight. He successfully made weight, but was submitted by Sean Brady in December.
However, Gastelum admitted he’s having difficulties cutting down to welterweight for his fight against Rodriguez, in what he described as a rough training camp.
“To be honest, this has been a pretty hard training camp,” Gastelum said during Thursday’s UFC on ABC 6 media day (h/t MMA Crazy). “There’s a lot of things that went on behind the scenes that a lot of people don’t know, don’t get to see, but it’s been pretty hard to get my weight down and get down to weight this time around – harder than last time.
“… I am pretty worried this week, but we’re going to talk with the manager and come up with the best game plan. But, I think we’re in for a rough weight cut.”
Rodriguez said he was contacted by the UFC about Gastelum’s weight struggles and he wasn’t pleased about it.
“Actually, the matchmakers reached out and I tried to get it to a catchweight, but he must be having such a bad fight camp that he can’t even make 180,” Rodriguez said. “I’m currently 179 pounds, so I have to put weight back on.
“It’s been 13 weeks since I found out about this fight. I’m sure he has, too. So the fact that he’s saying that he’s having a bad fight camp (for the weight cut) makes no sense. I feel like it’s lack of discipline. I don’t know if he’s having a bad fight camp or he’s just being lazy and doesn’t want to make the weight.”
Rodriguez said he accepted to now have his fight against Gastelum take place at middleweight. Having lost two straight, Rodriguez thinks he was in no position to decline the weight change.
“I already agreed to 185,” Rodriguez said. “I’m so invested in this fight. It put me in a really tough spot. I need this fight to happen. It’s been such a long fight camp and I did agree to take a percentage of his purse, which is only fair.
“I just felt like 180 would have been a good weight, but it’s not my first time coming through for the company, and I want the UFC to know that I’m that guy that’s going to make the sacrifices even if it’s not in my favor. … In the sense of being a professional, I feel like I lost a little respect for the guy.”
Late afternoon Thursday in Saudi Arabia, Gastelum posted on social media that he wanted the fight at 175 pounds, but Rodriguez countered with middleweight.
Regardless of how it transpired down the stretch, they signed for 170 pounds, and though the UFC hasn’t made a formal announcement – the bout is listed as welterweight at UFC.com – it appears middleweight indeed is the division in which the fight will take place.
RIP Gastelum
Looks like this will be the 8th time Kelvin has either gone back and forth between WW and MW or missed weight and had a catchweight fight.
He has missed weight and done catch 3x at WW. Sure he has more losses at MW but he only has four WW wins because in 11 years in the UFC because he can’t make the fucking weight.
Give it up man, you can’t make the weight. I’m surprised UFC is letting him still try again and again.
I don’t believe Gastelum.
Was Aliskerov in a training camp before this? Will the super short notice effect his performance?
new opponent hasn’t fought in 3 years…
