{"id":212545,"date":"2016-12-11T09:28:04","date_gmt":"2016-12-11T17:28:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=212545"},"modified":"2016-12-11T09:28:04","modified_gmt":"2016-12-11T17:28:04","slug":"kelvin-gastelum-says-hed-stay-middleweight-fight-vitor-belfort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/kelvin-gastelum\/kelvin-gastelum-says-hed-stay-middleweight-fight-vitor-belfort\/","title":{"rendered":"Kelvin Gastelum says he&#8217;d stay at middleweight for a fight with Vitor Belfort"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last month, the UFC made its long-awaited debut in New York with UFC 205. To celebrate the occasion, the organization stacked the card with high profile fights.<\/p>\n<p>One of the most exciting of these scheduled fights was one between Donald &#8220;Cowboy&#8221; Cerrone and Kelvin Gastelum, which was to occur at welterweight. <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/donald-cowboy-cerrone\/ufc-205-weigh-results-three-title-fights-official-cowboy-vs-gastelum-cancelled\/\">When Gastelum was so over weight for the bout that he didn&#8217;t even bother stepping on the scale to weigh in<\/a>, however, it was scrapped and removed from the card.<\/p>\n<p>Given that this was not the first time Gastelum had missed the welterweight cap, <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/dana-white\/dana-white-gastelums-weigh-miss-ill-never-let-fight-170\/\">he was ostracized from the division and sent north to middleweight<\/a>. He made his middleweight return on the main card of UFC 206 on Saturday night in Toronto. <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/kelvin-gastelum\/kelvin-gastelum-dodges-suspension-will-fight-tim-kennedy-ufc-206\/\">He did so against a legitimate top-10 foe in Tim Kennedy, replacing Kennedy&#8217;s original opponent, Rashad Evans<\/a>. Despite a slow start, <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc-results\/ufc-206-results-tim-kennedy-vs-kelvin-gastelum\/\">Gastelum ultimately wore his foe down to an impressive, third-round KO<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In the wake of his impressive defeat of Kennedy, Gastelum sent a wave of disappointment through the MMA community, expressing his intention to return to the welterweight division. During his post-fight press conference, however, Gastelum acknowledged that he would stay at middleweight for the right fights \u2013 particularly a scrap with MMA legend Vitor Belfort in Brazil.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cI think if I\u2019m offered a fight that interests me at 185, I don\u2019t see why I wouldn\u2019t stay here, but I think 170 is my optimum weight class,\u201d Gastelum told the media at the post-fight presser. \u201cI took this fight as a favor for the UFC. I knew they needed a replacement for Rashad Evans, so I stepped in, and I heard they need another replacement in Brazil with Vitor Belfort, so if they want to make that happen, then I\u2019ll do it. I\u2019m willing to step up and do that as well.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Considering how good Gastelum looked at middleweight on Saturday \u2013 and the repeated difficulty he&#8217;s had making the welterweight divisions 170-pound cap \u2013 this is probably good news.\u00a0Would you be interested in a Gastelum vs. Belfort scrap? Sound off, PENN Nation!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last month, the UFC made its long-awaited debut in New York with UFC 205. To celebrate the occasion, the organization stacked the card with high profile fights. One of the most exciting of these scheduled fights was one between Donald &#8220;Cowboy&#8221; Cerrone and Kelvin Gastelum, which was to occur at welterweight. When Gastelum was so [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":198435,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10397,10208],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Kelvin Gastelum says he&#039;d stay at middleweight for a fight with Vitor Belfort | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/kelvin-gastelum\/kelvin-gastelum-says-hed-stay-middleweight-fight-vitor-belfort\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kelvin Gastelum says he&#039;d stay at middleweight for a fight with Vitor Belfort | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last month, the UFC made its long-awaited debut in New York with UFC 205. To celebrate the occasion, the organization stacked the card with high profile fights. One of the most exciting of these scheduled fights was one between Donald &#8220;Cowboy&#8221; Cerrone and Kelvin Gastelum, which was to occur at welterweight. When Gastelum was so [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/kelvin-gastelum\/kelvin-gastelum-says-hed-stay-middleweight-fight-vitor-belfort\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-12-11T17:28:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Gastelum-wins.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"730\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"380\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/kelvin-gastelum\/kelvin-gastelum-says-hed-stay-middleweight-fight-vitor-belfort\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/kelvin-gastelum\/kelvin-gastelum-says-hed-stay-middleweight-fight-vitor-belfort\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tom Taylor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87\"},\"headline\":\"Kelvin Gastelum says he&#8217;d stay at middleweight for a fight with Vitor Belfort\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-12-11T17:28:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-12-11T17:28:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/kelvin-gastelum\/kelvin-gastelum-says-hed-stay-middleweight-fight-vitor-belfort\/\"},\"wordCount\":359,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Kelvin Gastelum\",\"Vitor Belfort\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2016\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/kelvin-gastelum\/kelvin-gastelum-says-hed-stay-middleweight-fight-vitor-belfort\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/kelvin-gastelum\/kelvin-gastelum-says-hed-stay-middleweight-fight-vitor-belfort\/\",\"name\":\"Kelvin Gastelum says he'd stay at middleweight for a fight with Vitor Belfort | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-12-11T17:28:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-12-11T17:28:04+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/kelvin-gastelum\/kelvin-gastelum-says-hed-stay-middleweight-fight-vitor-belfort\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/kelvin-gastelum\/kelvin-gastelum-says-hed-stay-middleweight-fight-vitor-belfort\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/kelvin-gastelum\/kelvin-gastelum-says-hed-stay-middleweight-fight-vitor-belfort\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MMA News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Kelvin Gastelum\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/kelvin-gastelum\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Kelvin Gastelum says he&#8217;d stay at middleweight for a fight with Vitor Belfort\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA &amp; 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