Scouting Report: Kelvin Gastelum

Kelvin Gastelum

Born: October 24, 1991 (Age: 31) in San Jose, California
Division: Middleweight
Height: 5’9”
Reach: 71.5”
Record: 16-8, 1 NC (11-8, 1 NC UFC)
Association: Fight Ready
Stage of Career: Prime

Summary: Gastelum has been an incredibly talented fighter for many years. Despite his short height and reach, “The Ultimate Fighter Season 17” winner features outstanding striking, including lovely footwork that allows him to jump in and out of range, and fluid, fast, powerful punches that have resulted in some gorgeous knockouts. He has excellent grappling skills, as well, with nice takedowns and generally sturdy takedown defense. Even so, Gastelum has not reached his potential, suffering a number of losses—some to fighters against whom he held a seemingly significant advantage. One culprit is his cardio, but another is a certain inattentiveness and lack of focus in his preparation and fights themselves. It is difficult to tell whether he will go up or down, but Gastelum still has the talent to be an elite title contender.

STRIKING

• Stance: Southpaw.
• Hand Speed: Well above average.
• Jab: Fantastic, despite his shorter reach. He brings it up from his waist, as a technical, straight, hard and fairly sudden weapon.
• Cross: Technical, fast, powerful and accurate.
• Right Hook: Throws it with solid rotation, arc and power.
• Overhand Left: Fast, accurate, powerful and quite technical, with perfect rotation and a tight arc. It was the punch with which he floored Chris Weidman.
• Uppercuts: Rarely throws them.
• Solitary Striker or Volume Puncher: Throws punches in bunches frequently.
• Favorite Combination(s): The one-two and three-two are technical, fast and powerful.
• Leg Kicks: Fast, sudden and fairly hard, although he rarely throws them. He also has a nice side kick to the legs he could benefit from utilizing more often.
• Body Kicks: Crisp, fast and powerful.
• Head Kicks: Rarely throws them.
• Chains Kicks to Punches: No.

Offensively, Gastelum has almost every weapon one could want in a striking profile. With his exceptional footwork and movement, he bounces in and out of range and tags opponents over and over again. His left hand possesses knockout power, especially his exceptional cross and overhand. His right is plenty dangerous, as well. He features a fine jab despite his shorter height and reach, along with a textbook and powerful right hook. All of this is complemented by his fast hands. His one-two and three-two are both excellent combinations. It goes beyond his boxing, as his leg and body kicks are fast, technical and powerful. He also has a slew of good defensive reactions, but he seems to lose focus at times and can be outsmarted by opponents with tricky styles and gameplans.

CLINCH

• Physical Strength: Good.
• Technique: Excellent, with really solid positioning of his body and textbook mastery of the fundamental positions.
• Knees: Decent, but he struggles to land them due to his height.
• Elbows: Accurate, technical and hard, especially on the break.
• Defense Against Knees/Elbows: Sound, but his short stature leaves him vulnerable.

Gastelum is tough to handle in the clinch and features a particularly dangerous short elbow that he first introduced in his encounter with Darren Till. However, due to his lack of height, he struggles to connect with knees and has shown a weakness to those thrown by opponents.

GRAPPLING

• Wrestling from a Shot: He took down Israel Adesanya a number of times and put Till on the floor briefly with a nice double-leg he set up by throwing a quick punch and then reacting to the Englishman moving forward.
• Wrestling in the Clinch: He usually does not secure takedowns this way, but he hit a brilliant reverse slam on a waistlock attempt from Jack Hermansson and wound up on top.
• Takedown Defense: Uses a lightning-quick sprawl with which he can angle off and has shown tremendous flexibility against single-legs, as he did against Ronaldo Souza. He was repeatedly taken down by Weidman, though the former middleweight champion was one of the premier grapplers in MMA at the time.
• Ability to Return to Feet: Excellent overall, with one limitation. While he knows what to do, he struggles to hip escape or explode from the bottom. Otherwise, he excels in this area. He has been known to use a triangle attempt to initiate a scramble to get up. Posts up and wall walks well.
• Submissions: Nailed down a few of them early in his career, most recently a rear-naked choke against Jake Ellenberger, but he does not appear to be a serious threat at his current level of competition.
• Defense/Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu from the Bottom: If he chooses to accept bottom position, he can be vulnerable to ground-and-pound. Shows some gaps against submissions. He simply tried to wrench his foot free from a Hermansson heel hook, then looked lost when he failed to do so.
• Top Control: Limited.
• Ground-and-Pound: Connects with meaningful shots during the rare times where he has elected to operate from top position.

Gastelum is a better-than-adequate grappler, but he rarely uses it as a serious weapon at his current level. He offers a potent takedown from a shot or the clinch but struggles to keep opponents down. They usually get back to an upright position without much trouble, even fighters like Till who typically show weakness in that area. His overall takedown defense is excellent, with only Weidman enjoying much success in terms of grounding him. Whenever Gastelum finds himself on the mat, he excels at getting up. However, those who manage to keep him on the canvas can exploit his defensive holes with ground-and-pound. There are also some areas of concern in terms of submission defense, though only Weidman and Hermansson have managed to put him away.

INTANGIBLES

• Athleticism/General Physical Strength: Exhibits fluid, fast movement, but he remains undersized at middleweight.
• Cardio: Generally up to par, but he can get tired in high-energy encounters. When fatigue sets in, his movements slow drastically and he becomes much easier to hit.
• Chin: Unbreakable thus far. Though he can be hurt, he has shown an ability to absorb punishing blows and has never been knocked out in 25 professional appearances.
• Recuperative Powers: Recovers quickly when hurt, even after eating a number of heavy shots.
• Intelligence: Does not seem willing or able to adjust to opponents—Robert Whittaker, for instance—who feature complex fighting styles. He also has issues making up for physical disadvantages, as was the case against Till and Jared Cannonier. He has been outsmarted more than once inside the cage.