Kelvin Gastelum secured a split decision victory over Ronaldo Jacare Souza last day at UFC 224 and now, he has his eyes set on the UFC Middleweight championship.
Gastelum came into the fight with a huge win over former champion Michael Bisping back at UFC Shanghai and now with the win against Souza, he feels that he should be next in line to receive the title shot.
“I definitely feel like a title shot should be next. I don’t think I’d accept any other fight than the title shot. I’m the most active middleweight there has been. All the guys (I’ve beat) are top-10 and former champions, so I feel like I deserve it,” Gastelum said at the UFC 224 post-fight press conference. (via MMA Fighting)
Willing to wait
The future of the Middleweight championship will be decided at UFC 225 when current champion Robert Whittaker fights Yoel Romero in the main event. Gastelum also revealed that he is willing to wait in case the fight between Whittaker and Romero is postponed.
“I definitely feel I deserve the shot. So I definitely feel like I will sit out until my shot is next,” he added.
Gastelum is currently 15-3 in his career and prior to his win over Michael Bisping, he had suffered a loss to Chris Weidman as well. However, he still has wins over names like Johny Hendricks, Nate Marquardt, Uriah Hall, Jake Ellenberger among others to showcase.
Souza, on the other hand, dropped to 25-6 in his career with the loss at UFC 224. He is now 3-3 in his last six fights with wins over Derek Brunson, Tim Boetsch, and Vitor Belfort while he lost out to Yoel Romero, Robert Whittaker, and Gastelum. While Gastelum is likely to hold out for a title shot after UFC 225, it would be interesting to see how Souza bounces back from the defeat.
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