Ask and ye shall receive! Kelvin Gastelum called out Anderson Silva after his big TKO win over Vitor Belfort on Saturday night, and just a few days later the UFC have the fight signed, sealed and delivered.
“(Silva) is a big name, he’s another legend, and he’s ranked above me,” Gastelum explained this past weekend at the UFC Fight Night 106 post-fight press conference when asked why he wanted to fight Silva. “I want to keep moving up the rankings. I want a fight that will get me, that will eventually give me a title shot. If we wanna go and make it happen in June 3rd in Rio, I’d love for it to happen.”
The fight will indeed take place at UFC 212 in Rio on June 3rd, just as he had hoped, and it’s another big opportunity for the 25-year-old to claim yet another win over a legend.
Currently on a three-fight winning streak, Gastelum began his run by defeating former welterweight champion Johny Hendricks in a catchweight bout, and then since moving up to middleweight he’s sent Tim Kennedy into retirement with a third round TKO win and then also convinced Vitor Belfort that his next fight will be his last after stopping him in the first round.
Now he’ll go up against the 41-year-old Silva, who finally got back to winning ways last month after a five-fight drought with a controversial unanimous decision victory over Derek Brunson at UFC 208.
That win arrests Silva’s slide down the middleweight rankings and he’s now stabilized at No.7, while Gastelum has made it to the No.10 spot and another big win would accelerate his progress up the ladder towards title contention.
Silva Vs Gastelum joins a UFC 212 event that’s set to be headlined by featherweight champion Jose Aldo Vs interim title holder Max Holloway, with former woman’s strawweight title contenders Claudia Gadhela and Karolina Kowalkiewicz also set to fight on the main card in Rio.
