Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight contender Kelvin Gastelum wants to make changes on his game after suffering the first back-to-back losses of his mixed martial arts career.
Looking to return to win column, Gastelum took on Darren Till in the co-main event of UFC 244 fight card held at the Madison Square Garden in New York last Saturday.
The San Jose, California native was the heavy favourite to win the middleweight clash especially after coming off an epic war against Israel Adesanya last April.
Compared to Till, Gastelum was the more-experienced middleweight as the British fighter was making his debut at 185 pounds, following a submission loss to Tyron Woodley and a brutal knockout by Jorge Masvidal.
The co-main event stars fought through three intense rounds but it was not Gastelum who was rewarded with the win.
Two ringside judges scored 29-28 and 30-27 for Till while the other one had it 30-27 for Gastelum, which meant a split decision win for ‘The Gorilla.’
Coming Back Stronger
Following the upset, the 28-year old middleweight knew he fell short against the debuting Till, which resulted with his second straight defeat.
Offering no excuse about the loss, Gastelum said his next move on his fighting career would be making ‘real changes.’
He took to social media to address the recent setback and bared his plans for his future MMA return.
“Sorry to everyone let down by my performance. Tonight I just couldn’t put it together!”
“Love all of you anyway and I promise you that I will be back better. Only way to go is up! God bless you all,” he wrote.
“This is disappointing to say the least.”
“But I’m very positive I’m gonna come back next year and make some real changes, changes that will hopefully impact my performances from now on because this was… yeah.”
“Thank you all for your support and I love all you guys, I leave my heart and soul out there for you guys. Thank you.”
Huge Win
Gastelum is now 9-5-1 in the UFC and has gone 3-3-1 since returning to middleweight class in December 2016.
In this run, he scored notable wins against Michael Bisping and Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza.
Meanwhile, it was a sigh of relief for the British mixed martial artist as he avoided a third-straight defeat.
Till now holds 6-2 win-loss record in his UFC career and is looking to make more impact in his new weight class.
“I felt invincible before the Woodley fight, to come off two devastating losses and move up, and fight the bulldozer of middleweight division … it was a close fight that could’ve gone either way,”
“I proved a lot of the doubters wrong and I want youse [sic] to message me tonight and see my reply, ‘F*** youse’.”
(Featured Image Source: Instagram/ Kelvin Gastelum and Darren Till)