B/R Exclusive: Gastelum Expects 1st-Round KO vs. Till, Eyes Rematch vs. Adesanya

In April, Kelvin Gastelum narrowly failed to capture the UFC's interim middleweight title, losing a tight judges' decision to Israel Adesanya. He's been eager to rebound from this heartbreaking defeat since the moment he walked out of the Octagon in Atlanta that night.  

Unfortunately, by the time Gastelum was healthy enough to do so, all of his top-ranked middleweight rivals had found dance partners. The new interim champion Adesanya had been matched up with the undisputed champ Robert Whittaker. Yoel Romero was scheduled to meet Paulo Costa. Jack Hermansson would soon take on Jared Cannonier. 

The list of viable opponents was short. 

Unwilling to sit around waiting, Gastelum decided to take control of the situation and called for a fight with former welterweight title challenger Darren Till. 

Till has never fought in the middleweight division, but the 170-pounder had been flirting with a move to 185 for months. Pushing Till to take the plunge struck Gastelum as the best available option at the time. 

"I was waiting for a top contender to fight, but they'd all been booked," Gastelum told Bleacher Report. "I felt like Till was probably the next best option. He's a big name and he wanted to move up to middleweight."

Gastelum suggested the matchup to his manager, who in turn broached it to UFC brass. Despite some pushback from UFC President Dana White, who allegedly worried the matchup was too harsh a middleweight welcome for Till, the fight was offered to the Briton. 

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According to Gastelum, the Liverpool fighter initially turned the fight down. Yet after a few days and an apparent change of heart, Till took to Instagram and called Gastelum out. The rest, as they say, is history. 

The pair are now days out from a high-stakes middleweight showdown. The bout will co-headline the stacked UFC 244 card inside the hallowed Madison Square Garden this Saturday. 

As this fight draws ever closer, many fans still feel the way White did when the matchup was still being put together: that it represents a brutally difficult middleweight debut for Till, the No. 10-ranked 170-pounder with a 17-2-1 record. Gastelum shares this opinion, but feels that any opponent he's matched up with going forward will be in over his head.

"I think it's a risk for anybody to fight me at this point," said the Arizona-based fighter, who's ranked fourth at 185 and has a 15-4 record with one no-contest. "I have so much to prove after my last fight. I'm going out there to make a statement against anybody. I don't care who's across from me."

Spurred on by a desire to get back on track, Gastelum is plotting a blitzkrieg in New York. He wants to deal with Till in abrupt and brutal fashion.

"A first-round knockout is what I'm predicting," he said, oozing confidence. "He leaves his chin up in the air, and I feel like if he does that and he tries to do the game that he's done before in the past, then he's going to have a rough night."

Predicting a first-round knockout over Till, who is first and foremost a striker, is undeniably bold. Yet Gastelum has performed very well against dangerous strikers previously—most recently Adesanya—and believes he'll do so again at UFC 244. 

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"I feel like Darren Till is not as good of a striker as Adesanya," he said. "[But] It's a different matchup and a different skill set and different style of fight."

Much of Gastelum's confidence stems from his April war with Adesanya, who recently won the undisputed middleweight title with a dazzling knockout of Whittaker. Gastelum came incredibly close to winning gold that night in Atlanta and said that five-round war with the new middleweight champion forced him to "level up mentally and physically."

While Gastelum is unlikely to move up the UFC middleweight rankings with a win over Till, he believes a quick knockout will still catapult him toward another shot at the middleweight title.  

"If I go out there and make a statement and I put a stamp on Darren Till, the rest of the world will take notice," he said. "I'm ready for what's to come, and I'm ready to jump in line for that title shot."

Adesanya is expected to take on the undefeated Costa early in 2020. While Gastelum is content to wait for the winner of that matchup, he would also be willing to fight another middleweight contender in the meantime, so long as the conditions are right. No matter what the next few months hold, however, he's determined to earn another middleweight title shot in the near future. If Adesanya still holds the belt at that time, the opportunity for redemption would make another title shot that much sweeter.

Gastelum is adamant that, with a clean bill of health, he can unseat the champion in this prospective rematch. 

"I'm super confident," Gastelum said. "No fighter ever goes into any fight 100 percent, and I was not the exception [to that rule] that night. I feel like if I get a rematch and I'm 100 percent healthy, there's nobody in the world that can stop me, not even him."

The road to that rematch starts with Till in New York City this Saturday.