Kelvin Gastelum’s welterweight bout against Rick Story on Saturday promised to be a classic case of the young and hungry fighter against the cagey veteran.
The bout lived up its promise and then some. Gastelum, the TUF middleweight winner, improved to 8-0 on his career with a split decision victory in Dallas. Judges’ scores were 29-28, 29-28, and 30-27.
The 22-year old Gastelum looked confident in round one, using his jab to set up the rest of his offense. That included a nasty head kick, which dropped Story to the mat. Gastelum nearly finished him on the mat, but couldn’t do so.
Gastelum seemed to be coasting in round two, but Story tagged Gastelum with a monster counter left hand in the final minute and dropped him. Story swarmed Gastelum and nearly finished the fight, but Gastelum was saved by the bell.
Both fighters let it all hang out in round three and each had their advantage time. But in the end, Gastelum had a little more left in the tank in the end and he finished strong to seal the decision.
Story (16-8) has been in a lose one/win one pattern for each of his past seven fights.