It’s well known by now that former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva was pulled from his bout against Kelvin Gastelum at the upcoming UFC Fight Night 122 event after he was flagged due to a potential U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) violation.
The promotion then was searching to find a replacement for Silva, and they found former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping who agreed to fight Gastelum.
The failure represented Silva’s second run-in with banned substances over the past three years. If you recall, he received a one-year suspension after testing positive for two steroids in 2015. According to Gastelum, Silva’s failed test didn’t come as much of a surprise.
“It’s not like I dislike Anderson or I like him. I feel indifferent about him,” Gastelum said on a UFC Shanghai media conference call (transcript courtesy of MMA Fighting). “To me, it wasn’t surprising that he got caught, and so we’ve got to move on with the show. I feel like he definitely tarnished his legacy with this, and it is what it is. The show must go on.”
Bisping is making a quick turnaround by taking this fight as he is coming off a submission loss to Georges St-Pierre in dramatic fashion at UFC 217 that resulted in him in losing the title. If history shows anything in the fight game, it proves that a short-notice matchup carries, even more, upside than the original.
“I feel like this is a much, much bigger fight than the Anderson Silva fight would’ve been,” Gastelum said.
“Mike is obviously the former champion and he’s highly ranked, and his position in the UFC is very high, so this is a great [chance] for my career. But I feel, advantage-wise, the fight is very equal. He’s coming fresh off a camp, so I imagine he’s in good shape and he’s going to be ready. I don’t think it’s going to be an easy fight. GSP said it himself,” Gastelum added. “That was the hardest fight he’s ever had.”
“I feel like if I win this fight, then I might have tarnished those plans,” Gastelum said. “I might have just permanently put myself in a position where I’ll be fighting for the middleweight title. If I get to fight for the middleweight title, then that’s ideal, but I also feel like if I do the right things, and I’m able to make the 170 (pound limit) safely and healthy, then I can it and I want to fight for that title too.
“I feel like it actually gives me an advantage,” Gastelum added regarding his questionable dual-weight status. “If I want to go back down and challenge Tyron Woodley, then I feel I can. And if I win this fight, it puts me right there in the conversations for the (middleweight) title as well, so I feel it’s a win-win.”
The event is slated to take place on November 25, 2017, at Mercedes Benz Arena in Shanghai, China. The main card will air on the promotion’s streaming service, UFC Fight Pass.
“After the fight, that’s when you find out what options you have and what you want to do,” Gastelum said. “So I feel like maybe that question should be asked after the fight.”
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