Kelvin Gastelum is no longer facing a six month suspension from the sport after the New York State Athletic Commission decided to rethink it’s decision to punish him for failing to turn up to the UFC 205 weigh-ins earlier this month.
Gastelum will have to pay the NYSAC a $2,000 fine, but beyond that, “the matter is now closed” an official told Sherdog.com.
With that out of the way Gastelum is now free to pursue a middleweight fight with Tim Kennedy, which the UFC had been targeting for UFC 206 in Toronto, Canada on December 10th.
Due to his repeated issues with making weight at 170lbs, the UFC are forcing the former TUF winner to move up to the middleweight division, and so this short notice fight provides the quickest way to get his career back on track.
Kennedy was originally supposed to fight Rashad Evans at the event, but the bout fell through for the second time in the space of a month due to ‘Suga’ running into issues relating to a recent MRI scan.
This is a challenging match-up for Gastelum in his new weight class, but it won’t be a completely new experience for him as he actually won TUF Season 17 while competing as a middleweight and also defeated Nate Marquardt by second round TKO at 185lbs last year.
