Kelvin Gastelum on why he's desperate for a rematch against Darren Till

Kelvin Gastelum has had a few losses in his career, but it's generally been against the most elite talent. When he moved to 185-pounds from Welterweight, it was a career-changer for him and he instantly shot up to the top five and even became an interim title challenger, where he would lose an all-time classic to eventual Undisputed Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya.

His first fight after that was in the co-main event of Madison Square Garden, where he welcomed Darren Till to the Middleweight division at UFC 244. He lost the bout by a close decision and while the fight wasn't a classic, on the media day (H/T BJPENN.com), Kelvin Gastelum said that he would love to run that fight back more than ever:

“Yeah, I thought I wanted a rematch before. I lost to guys like Neil Magny. I lost to Tyron Woodley and I felt like maybe I’d like to have a rematch with those guys. But, the feeling that I got after fighting Till, I’ve never wanted a rematch any more than I want that. I would love to run that back,” Gastelum said at media day. “All respect to Darren Till, he had a great, phenomenal gameplan that night and beat me fair and square. But, anybody that knows me, anybody that knows my style and that has seen me in my fights in the past knows that wasn’t me fighting at 100 percent. So, I’d love to be able to run it back.”

Kelvin Gastelum's next big challenge

The chip on Kelvin Gastelum's shoulders doesn't mean that he's overlooking his opponent this weekend - Jack Hermansson. While Jack Hermansson was supposed to face Chris Weidman a couple of months ago, the bout was scrapped due to COVID-19 and the Swedish Middleweight admitted that he was happier to face Kelvin Gastelum than he was to Chris Weidman.

It's going to be an interesting fight - one that will have serious title implications.