The fighter, reflecting back on the loss to Till, says he shouldn’t have accepted the fight at UFC 244 in the first place.
“I realized I should have taken more time off after my fight against Israel,” Gastelum said to MMA Fighting. “I felt like I needed to prove something after losing that title fight, and I kind of rushed myself back in there in a fight against Darren Till. Obviously, it didn’t work out in my favor. I wasn’t very emotionally invested in that fight. Obviously, I trained for that fight, and Darren Till had a great game plan for me and how to neutralize my game. I realized after that fight, I should have taken more time off.”
Gastelum is now riding a two fight losing streak and he hasn’t picked up a win in almost two years.
Now that Gastelum has recovered from an LCL injury, fans can expect to see him compete again around July.
“I’ve been recovering from a torn LCL back in January – I had a full tear,” Gastelum said. “No surgery needed, thankfully. Just been doing therapy on it and reconstructive therapy on it. It’s about 85 or 90 percent there. I’m just starting to grapple a bit, starting to box again. I’m starting to kick again. Training is picking back up a little bit. Just at the right time. Hopefully by July — I don’t know where this whole pandemic thing will be by then — but I’m hoping to fight by July.”
There is just one UFC event scheduled for the month of July, but that could all change due to the coronavirus pandemic.
