Kelvin Gastelum learned an invaluable lesson from his unanimous decision loss to Robert Whittaker in April.
“I feel like if I would have actually planned a game plan, instead of going out there and fighting on pure instinct, then maybe the fight would have gone a different way,” Gastelum tells DAZN News.
“I just kind of went out there and tried to fight on pure instinct just because we didn’t have a lot of time to prepare but we were confident on taking the fight because we had prepared for him in the past.”
Gastelum is referring to the February 2019 tilt against Whittaker that he trained roughly 13 weeks for only for the latter to withdraw due to emergency surgery. That’s in comparison to replacing Paulo Costa on three weeks short notice to fight Whittaker four months back.
But that stinging loss, Gastelum’s fourth in his last five fights, allowed him to step back, untangle and analyze his bad habits. Through that introspection, Gastelum unearthed his biggest flaw as a fighter.
“I fight a lot on instinct,” says Gastelum bluntly. “I don’t really go out there with a game plan.”
That’s precisely what the 29-year-old decided to hone in on and actively change in preparation to clash with Jared Cannonier in the main event of UFC Fight Night on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
“For this fight I wanted to have clear-cut goals on what we want to do, what we want to accomplish,” Gastelum tackles assertively. “We had to structure it in a way that everybody is involved, everybody is on the same page and this was by far the best camp.”
That camp was further bolstered by Gastelum training with former UFC double champion Henry Cejudo, as he elaborated about with the media Wednesday.
All that being said, heading into the 20th walk into the Octagon of his UFC career, Gastelum vows that he’ll sport the best fighting version of himself that MMA fans have ever seen.
And that’s courtesy of an uptick of communication in camp.
“Lot of communication between me and my coaches, a lot of feedback before and after training,” Gastelum says. “Communication was key on getting everybody on the same page, getting everybody aligned with the goals we want to do and goals we want to achieve throughout the camp.
“It was probably one of the best camps that I’ve ever had in my life,” he adds. “No one has ever fought this version of myself in the UFC as of yet and I’m excited to showcase it.”
He may have to considering Cannonier is the No. 3-ranked middleweight to his ninth. The 37-year-old Cannonier is also coming off a unanimous decision loss to Whittaker, but rattled off three consecutive wins prior to that.
An impactful victory over Cannonier would certainly toss Gastelum into an upward trajectory.
“I believe it puts me right back where I was — on a mission,” he says.
“#OnAmission4Gold is more of a mantra,” Gastelum continues about the hashtag that runs his fighting epicenter. “It’s something I live by. It’s a quote I stole from Vince Lombardi.”
That Lombardi quote being: “Gentlemen, we will chase perfection, and we will chase it relentlessly, knowing all the while we can never attain it. But along the way, we shall catch excellence.”
Gastelum was pretty damn excellent in his unanimous decision loss to Israel Adesanya. To this day, no middleweight has pushed the division champion to his limits like Gastelum did back in April 2019.
“Putting all those experiences together — the good, the bad —,” Gastelum says, “we feel like we’re just hitting a new stride in my career and I’m excited to show it.”