Kelvin GastelumDavid’s career needs a victory this Saturday. After struggling to maintain a winning streak in recent years, the UFC veteran firmly believes his best career days are just around the corner.
Gastelum returns on the main card of UFC on ABC 6, which takes place at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Gastelum (18-9 MMA, 12-9 UFC) faces fellow veteran Daniel Rodríguez.
Gastelum is confident he can get back into the win column, as he sees himself as better than Rodriguez (17-4 MMA, 7-3 UFC) in all areas of the fight game.
But in a late twist, the fight will take place at middleweight after Gastelum revealed a fight with the weight reduced to 170 kilos, at which the fight was booked.
“Obviously I’ve fought a lot of former champions and elite fighters, right, so I think I just need to go out there and stay focused on the strategy that I’ve established with my team,” Gastelum told MMA Junkie in Spanish. “D-Rod does a lot of things well. He is a good boxer and we need to be careful with some things. Overall, I really feel superior to him in every aspect – in striking and on the ground.
“I feel very confident in my abilities and that I am the best fighter. I’m ready to fight wherever the fight takes place.”
Gastelum returned to welterweight and moved his team from Kings MMA in California to Fight Ready in Arizona. He made major career changes in preparation for his last match, which unfortunately didn’t work out for him.
“It’s very difficult to get up again and again and again, but that’s what a fighter does,” Gastelum said when asked about his loss to Sean Brady last December. “We fight every day. It’s a shame I couldn’t show how much I’ve evolved and improved because the fight wasn’t what I expected. However, this time, I feel very good and very confident in my preparation. I feel good.”
Gastelum is 2-6 in his last eight fights, where he has competed against some of the best in the world at 185 and 170 pounds. Even though he’s been in the UFC for over a decade, at just 32 years old, Gastelum said he thinks he still has a long way to go in his career.
“I still think I can do this and I think better days are ahead of me,” Gastelum said. “That’s how I really feel.”
For more information on the card, visit the MMA Junkie events hub to UFC on ABC 6.
