Kelvin Gastelum is in a good place after what was a disappointing 2019.
Gastelum was set to challenge for the middleweight title in February only for then champion Robert Whittaker to pull out after the weigh-ins. He would then face Israel Adesanya for the interim middleweight title but would lose the decision after a five-round war.
Gastelum returned seven months later at UFC 244 — something he later revealed was way too early after the Adesanya fight — and suffered a unanimous decision defeat to Darren Till following an underwhelming performance.
In a recent media scrum ahead of his UFC Fight Island 2 fight with Jack Hermansson this weekend, Gastelum admits he underwent depression afterwards and was in a bad place mentally as well as physically.
“Last year in February, I was supposed to fight for the title. In my head, I was going to be the world champion,” Gastelum said (via MMA Fighting). “Then that didn’t happen. Fought in April, lost. Fought in November and lost.
“I think I did go through a little bit of depression. I gained like 30 pounds. Had an injury. Had to recover from that. So I had to battle some demons in my off time.”
Gastelum Ready To Go Again
In addition, Gastelum also had to deal with some personal issues behind the scenes.
However, it is now all behind him as he feels there is a resurgence within him as he notably enjoyed the process for this particular camp.
“I’m actually in a really good place, mentally and physically, which really wasn’t the case for my last two fights,” Gastelum said. “I’m not putting any excuses. There’s a lot of things that go behind the scenes for a lot of fighters but it’s in the past, it’s neither here nor there.
“Now I’m in a good place mentally, physically. I feel really good coming into this fight. I battled [my demons], I conquered them, and here I am, ready to go.”
Although many things are in the past now, Gastelum still hopes to have a rematch with Till down the line.
“I thought I wanted a rematch before,” Gastelum added. “I lost to guys like Neil Magny. I lost to Tyron Woodley. I felt like maybe I’d like to have a rematch with those guys. But the feeling that I got after fighting Till, I’ve never wanted a rematch more than I want that. I would love to run that back.
“All respect to Darren Till. He had a great, phenomenal game plan that night. He beat me fair and square. But anybody that knows me, anybody that knows my style and that has seen me in my fights in the past, knows that wasn’t me fighting at 100 percent. So I’d love to be able to run it back.”
For now, he has to get past Hermansson first.
What do you make of Gastelum’s comments?