Although most of the conversation revolved around his in-the-cage bout with Dricos du Plessis, middleweight champ Israel Adesanya had a sweet exchange with a former opponent this past weekend at UFC 290. In a video shared by Kelvin Gastelum, who faced Adesanya for a over the interim middleweight title back in 2019, the two met side by side in the cage during the UFC 290 event and the conversation is quite informative.
Israel Adesanya will start by telling Gastelum that he is proud of him and how he has watched his former opponent grow from their first meeting through his transition between middleweight and the recently announced move to his native division, welterweight.
This fighting game is a golden thread that binds us together forever! Respect is earned for life. @tweet Thank you for inspiring so many, including myself. 🙏👊 pic.twitter.com/QDpIbppPuZ
– #OnAmission4Gold (KelvinGastelum) July 9, 2023
“I’m so proud of you. You know why? Discipline. Maturity. Back in the day you were a little bit talented and you worked so hard bro. But the fact that you know now and you’re like ‘yeah, let’s get it,’ do whatever you want.”
With the middleweight champion telling Gastelum this is the time, the former interim title challenger responded by saying he was able to learn from Adesanya and when he first got into the UFC.
“That’s what I respect about you, brother. When you entered the scene you knew what you wanted to do, didn’t you? You went for it. Now, I feel like I’m in that place.”
After his victory earlier this year over Chris Curtis in April, Kelvin Gastelum will take up his next fight against undefeated welterweight Shavkat Rachmanov. The fight will have immediate ramifications for Gastelum’s standing in the welterweight division and he could find himself in a very opportunistic position with a win over sixth seed Rakhmonov.
To see more interaction between Kelvin Gastelum and Israel Adesanya, as well as others, watch the video below from his site. Official YouTube channelwho gave a behind-the-scenes look at his appearance at UFC 290.
Mike Pendleton is a current contributor to MyMMANews while also hosting the “On The Mic” podcast and is a former co-producer of Sirius XM’s Fight Nation.
With a particular passion for interviewing and talking to the best people about the fighting game, you can read or listen to Mike’s work across his many outlets.
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