While most of us slept off our second helping of Thanksgiving, Kelvin Gastelum was in Shanghai, China earning the biggest win of his entire career. It only took him a single round to take out Michael Bisping, who was coming off a super quick turnaround from UFC 217’s loss to Georges St-Pierre. Gastelum wasted no time at all declaring exactly what he wanted this win to propel him towards: The UFC middleweight title. With St-Pierre’s next fight up in the air, Gastelum set his sights on a fight with Robert Whittaker in Perth.

“I trained for this, and I expected it coming into the fight that I would knock [Michael Bisping] out. I am confident in my abilities. I’m here to focus on my career and get where I need to be, which is the middleweight title. I heard Robert Whittaker needs a main event over in Australia for February and I’m up the challenge. You guys say I beat up all the elderly, and Robert Whittaker is definitely not an elderly, he’s probably my age, so I’m up for the challenge.  [Georges St-Pierre] said it himself: Anything can happen in the sport of MMA, you know. I feel like Robert Whittaker and I should be next. We’re two young guys who haven’t even hit our prime yet, and I just beat the guy who was the guy so I think I should be next. I don’t know what you guys are talking about, [Bisping] was the middleweight champion three weeks ago.” – Kelvin Gastelum at the UFC Shanghai post-fight press conference.

Kelvin Gastelum already had to be on the defensive, receiving criticisms about the age of his recent opponents. Old or not, Gastelum is right: Michael Bisping held the belt just three weeks ago, not to mention the 38-year old former champ took out Luke Rockhold last year. Either way, Kelvin Gastelum declared he’d pick on someone more his age and wants to bring the fight to Whittaker. It’s anyone’s guess how things will play out, but it’s gurranteed that all the top middleweights will not by pushing for a fight with Gastelum in order to steal his fire.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 11/25/2017