5 Defining Moments: Kelvin Gastelum

Kelvin Gastelum should not expect anything close to a soft landing in his return to the Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight division.

“The Ultimate Fighter 17” winner will toe the line against former Cage Fury Fighting Championships titleholder Sean Brady in a UFC on ESPN 52 showcase this Saturday at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas. Gastelum steps back into the spotlight having lost five of his past seven bouts. He last competed at UFC 287, where he outpointed Chris Curtis to a unanimous decision in their three-round confrontation on April 8.

As Gastelum fixes his sights on Brady and their forthcoming clash at 170 pounds, a look at five of the many moments that have come to define him:

1. A Dark Horse No More

Unyielding aggression, sharp standup and well-executed takedowns spurred Gastelum to a split decision over former Ring of Combat champion Uriah Hall in the middleweight tournament final at “The Ultimate Fighter 17” Finale on April 13, 2013 inside the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. All three judges scored it 29-28: Sal D’Amato for Hall, Adalaide Byrd and Junichiro Kamijo for Gastelum. Hall looked out of sorts at times, perhaps caught off-guard by his opponent’s willingness to exchange and wade through his punches and kicks. The Team Tiger Schulmann product peaked in the second round, where he tagged Gastelum with jabs, completed a takedown and executed a beautiful belly-to-back suplex. Gastelum was not deterred. He secured a pair of takedowns in the third round and, despite being reversed twice, spent enough time in top position to earn the split verdict.

2. Short of the Mark

“The Ultimate Fighter” Season 16 semifinalist Neil Magny filled in as a short-notice replacement for Matt Brown and took a split decision from Gastelum in the UFC Fight Night 78 headliner on Nov. 21, 2015 at the Monterrey Arena in Monterrey, Mexico. All three members of the cageside judiciary saw it 48-47: Eric Colon and Marcos Rosales for Magny, Cardo Urso for Gastelum. Neither man was willing to break. Magny controlled the early stages with his length and pace. He advanced to full mount and climbed to the back in the first round, struck for multiple takedowns in the second and dictated the terms of the engagement for much of the third. Gastelum, perhaps sensing the moment in his first main event assignment was slipping away, made his move in Round 4, where he floored Magny twice, once with a right hook and later with a left. The Kings MMA export maintained his momentum in the fifth, as he delivered a takedown inside the first minute and later scrambled into top position when Magny responded with a takedown of his own. Still, it was not enough to overcome the deficit he faced on two of the scorecards.

3. Down for ‘The Count’

Gastelum knocked out former Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight titleholder Michael Bisping in the first round of their UFC Fight Night 122 main event on Nov. 25, 2017 at Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai, China. Three weeks to the day after being deposed as 185-pound champion, Bisping bit the dust 2:30 into Round 1. His decision to replace a suspended Anderson Silva on short notice did not go according to plan. Gastelum waited for his opportunity and did not miss. He drilled Bisping with a two-punch combination, punctuating the quick volley with a destructive left hook that dropped “The Count” where he stood. Gastelum mopped up what was left with follow-up punches, as the Rafael Cordeiro protégé tied a bow on a signature victory.

4. A Contender Emerges

Stock in Gastelum soared to an all-time high in the UFC 224 co-headliner on May 12, 2018, when he eked out a split decision against former Strikeforce champion Ronaldo Souza at Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro. All three cageside judges scored it 29-28: Guilherme Bravo and Chris Lee for “The Ultimate Fighter 17” winner, Sal D’Amato for Souza. It did not start well for Gastelum, who was forced to survive a harrowing ground exchange with the submission savant in the first round. Souza swept into top position under threat of a leg lock, advanced to full mount on two occasions, chipped away with ground-and-pound and pursued an armbar for the better part of a minute. However, all the work was a drag on his gas tank. Gastelum turned the tide in the middle stanza, where he sat down “Jacare” with a left cross, stayed out of clinch range and had the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt teetering on the end of his punches. The third round was too close to call, as the middleweight contenders fired away at one another. Gastelum flurried late on the exhausted Souza, perhaps tipping the scales in his favor.

5. Second Fiddle

Israel Adesanya laid claim to the interim middleweight crown with a unanimous decision over Gastelum in an electrifying UFC 236 co-main event on April 13, 2019 at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. “The Last Stylebender” swept the scorecards with 48-46 marks from all three judges, as he emerged as the last man standing in what was later named Sherdog’s runaway “Fight of the Year.” Their 25-minute engagement was marked by wild shifts in momentum. Gastelum drew first blood in the first round, where he had the City Kickboxing cornerstone reeling with a sneaky but powerful right hook. Adesanya answered in the second, first with a chopping right hand that resulted in a knockdown and later with a spinning back elbow that revved the crowd’s engines. As they headed to the championship rounds, it appeared to be anyone’s fight. Gastelum opened a cut under the New Zealand-based kickboxer’s right eye and staggered him badly with a head kick, driving forward with punches in a bid to finish late in Round 4. Still, Adesanya refused to wilt. He did his best work over the final five minutes, as he threatened Gastelum with a standing guillotine, transitioned to a triangle choke and scrambled to his feet. Adesanya knocked down the fading Kings MMA rep three times in the last half of the fifth round and was closing in on a stoppage when the horn sounded, an audible buzz sweeping across the 14,297 fans in attendance.