Kelvin Gastelum is replacing Paulo Costa in an upcoming UFC main event.
The UFC had announced that Paulo Costa would be taking on Jared Cannonier in a main event fight for a show they had scheduled on August 21. However, Costa recently took to Twitter to say he never signed a contract to face Cannonier.
In his social media posts Costa also claimed that he was not being paid enough money to feature in a main event. He also compared his pay to the millions currently being brought in by YouTubers like Jake and Logan Paul.
Yesterday ESPN announced Costa was out of the fight with Cannonier, assuming he was ever ‘in’ it. Furthermore it was announced that Cannonier would now be fighting Kelvin Gastelum in that main event slot.
Gastelum was last seen in the main event of UFC Vegas 24 on April 17. There he took on former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker. Gastelum lost that bout by lopsided unanimous decision.
After that fight Gastelum took to social media to proclaim that he needed to make adjustments, but that he also believed he could still be one of the best fighters on the planet.
The Whittaker loss gave Gastelum a record of 1-4 in his last five fights. Over that span Gastelum has beaten Ian Heinisch, but taken losses to Jack Hermansson, Darren Till and current champion Israel Adesanya. Gastelum entered the UFC back in 2013 by winning the 17th season of The Ultimate Fighter.
Cannonier’s last fight was also against Whittaker. At UFC 254 last October Cannonier dropped a decision loss to the Aussie/Kiwi. Prior to that loss Cannonier had three TKO wins in a row over Hermansson, Anderson Silva and David Branch.