UFC middleweight Kelvin Gastelum comes into UFC Saudi Arabia with some tough circumstances with his weight cut as he heads into his fight with Daniel Rodriguez on Saturday.
“To be honest this has been a pretty hard training camp,” Gastelum told reporters on Thursday.
“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 this time around. Harder than last time.”
Gastelum (18-9) made his return to the welterweight division at UFC Austin last December hitting 170 on the dot. It likely won’t be the case this time around as Gastelum said himself.
“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,” he said.
Fighters rarely, if ever, admit to having a tough weight cut after the fact. Never mind doing it before the cut even starts.
On Saturday he faced Rodriguez who is known for taking it to his opponents and ending up in brawls more often than not.
“Daniel Rodriguez is a very formidable boxer. He has really good striking and I think pretty good defensive wrestling,” said Gastelum.
“We’ve been working a lot on wrestling, but once we get in there and we lock that door, a lot of the times emotions get the better of us and sometimes that game plan goes out the window. Who knows we might be in for a nice treat on Saturday.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Kelvin Gastelum above.
