Issue 174

December 2018

In particular, how Kelvin Gastelum has gone from teenage bail bond collector to UFC title contender, his TUF journey from pupil to mentor and why he still has a healthy fear of one person: his mother.

Kelvin Gastelum came from nothing, grew up fast. So quickly that he was collecting bail bonds as a teenager in Zuma, Arizona, on the Mexican border.

“Like a lot of fighters, we come from nothing. I come from a broken home. Growing up wasn’t easy, but you get through it and it makes you who you are,” explains the macho millennial middleweight who exudes a chill demeanor and, as we know from his cage experience, remains calm in a crisis.

Gastelum, after a third stint on The Ultimate Fighter, has gone from bail bond collector to bounty hunter for UFC gold, as he prepares at his base in Huntington Beach for the next mission that materializes from the UFC. It is time, he says, for him to claim the UFC title he has coveted since he took up professional mixed martial arts aged 18, and won Season 17 of The Ultimate Fighter in 2013, at the tender age of just 21.

Gastelum was, and in many senses still is, a prodigy. “I never gave up and I’ve made my dream come true. And anybody that puts the work in can achieve anything they want in the world,” says the Mexican-American who defies the odds as a 5ft 9in tall middleweight. One step away from glory. He has a champion’s attitude, and incredible fortitude. “I’ve always felt I can reach that place where I set myself. Not just make a name for myself, but actually make something of myself in life.” 

You only had to witness Gastelum’s interviews on the latest series of The Ultimate Fighter to see his maturity. His third series, we might remind ourselves. And still only 26. Incredible, really. He has the standing of a veteran.

There have been middleweight victories over Vitor Belfort (unfortunately overturned due to testing positive ‘in competition’ for marijuana – more of which later) Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza – both in the cauldron of Brazil– while triumphs over Tim Kennedy and Michael Bisping have propelled him inexorably towards the belt. Las Vegas, Australia, Timbuktu . . . Gastelum could not give a g where the fight with champion Robert Whittaker takes place. He just wants that belt around his waist.

Gastelum was just a pup aged 21 when he went into the TUF house ve years ago, defeating Uriah Hall in the final. Heavy left hands, brilliant wrestling, unshakable self-belief and a tenacity that would not be quelled. He’s a natural southpaw, he improved his knee attacks and Muay Thai at Kings MMA under Master Rafael Cordeiro, and then finding that he is a happier man, and a more contained, and thus arguably, better fighter than he was at welterweight, has found his niche.

He certainly belongs at 185. Fifteen wins, three losses, in his pro career and the #4-ranked fighter in the UFC middleweight division. This last few months, though, TUF pupil has turned master, and there have been deep internal rewards. “I knew that was one thing I wanted to do in The Ultimate Fighter, to be able to give a little bit back. The sport has given me so much. This was one way I would be able to do it, to help guys out the way I was helped. I just wanted to be there, in the way I had coaches there for me.” Chael Sonnen had been his coach in that first series, a man who won high praise from his team for his advice and counsel not just during the series, but afterward as well. Real mentoring. Now he has passed on the torch.

This was Kelvin’s second coaching stint in TUF, of course. “I already knew what it was like to coach at Ultimate Fighter because I did the Latin America season. Let me tell you it’s a lot of work. You think you’re going to Vegas, they’re paying for your entire trip, but you’re there to work. It was surprising. Sometimes you don’t want to be there because it is so much work. I knew what to expect, I knew it would be a lot of work so I wanted to put 100 percent of effort into it.”

So, so different, in feel, form and shape from when he had come through the TUF trials into Season 17 in 2013 and into Team Sonnen. “Yeah, very much so. It – and I – was different. I was just a small-town boy, didn’t know much about anything. I was very naive and very young. Compared to who I am now, very, very different.”

“Not in all ways because I’m still very dumb and naive,” he laughs, “but in other ways.” It probably helped, too. He was undersized of course, as a middleweight. But it wasn’t an issue.

“Yes I do think my innocence about the world helped. I feel like my naivety helped me to not worry about a lot of things that the other guys would. I was very unaware of the world. I didn’t worry about my diet. I had no idea how to diet. The first week in the house I was eating microwave food. I had no idea what I was doing,” he giggles. “But at the same time, it didn’t matter. I was happy. I was eating food. I didn’t have to worry about the things other guys did. They worried about things going on at home or their diet. I didn’t have those problems at the time. I was very simple-minded.” Boy did that pay off.

Hall, Gastelum’s fellow finalist, a moody, devastating knockout artist, looked a clear favorite for the glass trophy and $100k payday, yet the kid from Yuma was smart on his feet and controlled his opponent – taller than him by 5 inches – on the ground.

By his third season, Gastelum looked accomplished on television, too, as a public figure. “I’ve never been a show-off. I’ve never been one to want the spotlight. But it is what it is. I was pretty confident by the third series. My Spanish in the Latin America season still had some work to do. So I knew in front of the cameras I was not coming off as I wanted to and I wasn’t communicating as I wanted to. Now being around cameras and being in the spotlight for quite some time, you know what to do with it. You get the rhythm of things, so I was pretty confident this time round because of the practice.”

What was evident was his ease in front of the camera, a growing maturity. “I don’t necessarily want people to take inspiration from me, but I definitely want people to know there’s a lot of people like us who come from nothing who fought their way up and became a little bit of something.”

“Fighters, people from where I’m from make something out of nothing and I feel there’s a lot of people who need to hear that message. It sounds like a cliche?, I don’t want to be one of those guys that says with hard work and dedication you can go far, but that’s what it’s taken. Hard work and dedication to my craft.”

Having worked with Gastelum on both radio and television, I can vouch for his consistency as a fighter, a man, and one who has always talked honestly and openly of his craft. He’s also always been honest about his love of pizza, pasta and Mexican cuisine. That, he says, was down to his mother, Patricia, the most influential person in his life. She still is. There was love, but she ruled with an iron rod. It was, he reckons, the making of him.

His family does attend his fights from time to time. “My mom comes when she can. I don’t know what it’s like being with her when I’m fighting. I’ve always asked for a video to see what her reaction is, but no one in the family has ever done it. She’s a very strong women. She likes to be right there in the fire.”

If that’s the fight in the family, what about the pizza in the parlour?

“I guess my whole family is to blame. We all like to eat. It’s just in our culture, the Mexican culture loves to eat those carbs. We like the beans, the rice, the breads,” chuckles Gastelum. “It’s just in our culture unfortunately. I was stuck with those cards.”

But his mother, Patricia, fed him not just food, but fundamentals that resonate with the fighter today. “My mother was always very disciplinary with my sister and I. I think it transferred a lot over to our adult lives. I think she had to be tough. She had to be the strict one in our household. Being a single mother, she had to play both sides of the cards – mother and father. Sometimes she would be a hard disciplinarian and we were very, very scared of her as kids. Shoot, me and my sister Belem, we still are.”

“My mother is definitely the most influential person in my life. She worked two to three jobs just to put food on the table, to put us forward in this life. Not only her. I’ve had other great examples who have been father figures: my coaches that have helped me along the way. I’ve been really lucky with all the coaches I’ve had, they really have been like fathers to me. Starting with my very first coach when I was eleven years old, Terrell Hunsinger. He’s still with me, he still goes to all my fights, he was on The Ultimate Fighter with me. Chance Farrar (the former fighter, who has also worked as a border patrol officer) they’ve all been with me from day one and been father figures to me. They shape you, and those are the people who have shaped me into who I am. These are very respected people in our community who do a lot for our community and I’m very, very grateful.”

Gastelum has been using a product called Lactigo, a lactic acidosis blocker that helps him train harder and recover faster. “I guess you could call it a supplement that helps you recover,” he explains. “I’ve been using that maybe three years. The results are pretty astounding when it comes to recovery and how it helps with the lactic acid in your muscles. I’m not the scientist behind it, but it does help a lot in training, recovery and sometimes even in cutting weight. I put it on and it helps open the pores up a little bit and at the same time it helps replenish your muscles so it’s doing a lot things at the same time.

“I don’t even know if there’s anything the body doesn’t produce itself in the cream,” he continues. “It’s pretty natural. It doesn’t do any harm or have any side effects. And I wouldn’t take anything I wouldn’t be allowed to use because of USADA.”

One thing which Gastelum takes, and was punished for, was marijuana, which he tested positive for after the Belfort fight. The result, a great one for Gastelum, was declared a No Contest. Has his use of the drug stopped now? “Yes and no. I’ve been able to manage an intake of cannabinoids into my body and been able to manage it better. I got more informed from it and it hasn’t been an issue since. It’s perfectly legal in California so we have no problem. It definitely should be taken off the performance like I’m healthier at middleweight, but I feel like if I want to make 170lbs and follow that strict diet then I can do it. It just would have to be worth the money I guess.”

So, back to those victories at middleweight and what they did for Gastelum’s emotional, physical and mental confidence. And indeed, his bank balance, with two Performance of the Night bonuses and one for Fight of the Night. “I don’t know a lot of other middleweights that are taking the fights that I’m taking. I don’t know any other middleweights who are as active as I was before I was on this little break. I had five fights in 18 months, a fight every three months. I was pretty busy for a while. I don’t know a lot of other middleweights as busy as me. When Dana White (the UFC president) talked about guys who would be rewarded for stepping up and fighting, I definitely thought that was me. So I was glad I got the nod when it came to a title shot.”

He earned it, though. Kennedy, Belfort, Bisping, Souza. “I guess the win over Tim Kennedy gave me the most satisfaction. I’d gone through a lot at that time not being able to make the weight at Madison Square Garden to being shoved back up to the middleweight division kind of by force,” he explains. “That one meant a lot to me, it was a big win for me.”

Heading out to Brazil against two huge names was a massive test. And a major growth spurt for his career. “Absolutely, by every meaning of the word it was an amazing experience. Those are some of the best times that I’ve had in my life in Fortaleza. I met some amazing people. Same thing when I went to Rio. I met some amazing people that I’ll forever remember. I’ll remember those experiences for the rest of my life. Not only that, but beating them close to their home, in their home territory, it just doesn’t get any better than that.”

So now on to a defining fight against the champion Robert Whittaker.

“I’ve been working for this for my entire life,” he declares. “This fight just gets me pumped up, more than anything else in the world. It will be the best KG you guys have ever seen. I am putting in everything I can to be the best I can be,” he reasons, keen to point out that he has recently received his black belt in jiu-jitsu from 10th Planet. “I’m excited. This to me means more than just winning a world title. It means way more than winning the 12 pounds of gold. It means more than winning money. It’s a lot more than that to me. I hope I can display how much this means to me in the Octagon. I’m going to get prepared for it. I’ll be ready to put on a good show for everybody.”

There is rarely any smack talk from Gastelum but he delivers some powerful thoughts on how he believes he stacks up against Whittaker. In fact, Gastelum is actually somewhat dismissive of his opponent.

“I don’t see anything special in him,” he argues. “100 percent I match up very well against him. I think I hit harder than him. I’ve been working on my ground game, I just got my black belt. I was a pretty darn good wrestler back in my day. I feel I can hit harder than him and I don’t see him beating me anywhere.

“He throws a sloppy high right kick that sometimes lands,” Gastelum continues. “I’m going to overwhelm him and maybe knock him out inside two rounds. I’m very con dent in my abilities and the way I’ve been training. He’s not going to be able to touch me. I’ve got a gut feeling it will be in February but I have been given no real indication as to when it is.”

No pressure, though. “I’m actually enjoying this little time off. It’s the first time in years that I’ve got to take a little bit time off from fighting. I had five fights in 18 months and my body was pretty beat up. I can now take care of it. Making sure it’s a thousand percent ready. I’ve got little things to deal with before taking care of business with Rob, so I’m glad for this time off .”

“I would like it to be in Vegas, where it’s closer to home, but I really doubt it will be in Nevada. I know he really wants to fight in Australia. He’s the champ, he makes the calls. This is my first belt. I’m only 26, so I’m only getting started. I just can’t wait for that moment to come.”

What Gastelum has, undeniably, is true grit. The kind of grit that gets things done. But it is sprinkled with gold dust. The kind of which champions are made. “I don’t find this fight life hard at all, I am reminded of my struggles constantly. I think it’s what pushes me every day. I know what it’s like to have nothing. I know what kind of days I want to have. I don’t want to go back to what kind of life we had before. We were struggling as a family, financial problems – you name it. We lived in one room, my whole family. We come from a very, very poor background. It is what pushes me every day. And I’ll never forget that.”