The second fight of this year’s Noche UFC Main Card features a Middleweight matchup between veteran Kelvin Gastelum vs. Dustin Stoltzfus. Both fighters are coming off a loss entering this bout. Noche UFC is headlined by No. 2 Diego Lopes vs. No. 10 Jean Silva in a five-round Featherweight fight.
Friday morning, Gastelum weighed in at 191 pounds, five over the Middleweight limit. Stoltzfus agreed for the fight to go on, but Gastelum is forfeiting 35 percent of his purse. Check out my best bet for Kelvin Gastelum vs. Dustin Stoltzfus right here.
Kelvin Gastelum To Win By Decision (+130)
Gastelum has suffered some losses, but he has faced very tough competition throughout his UFC career. He is 2-2 in his previous four fights, with his two losses coming against Sean Brady and Joe Pyfer. Gastelum has also fought multiple former UFC Champions, including Israel Adesanya, Robert Whittaker, Michael Bisping, Chris Weidman, and Tyron Woodley.
Gastelum is taking a significant step down in competition against Stoltzfus, who is 3-6 in the UFC. Even though Gastelum’s been in the UFC for 12 years, he is still only 33 years old. Gastelum is the smaller guy in this fight, but that is nothing new for him.
On DraftKings Sportsbook, Gastelum is the betting favorite at -230 with Stoltzfus being a +190 underdog. Gastelum needs to be more aggressive than he was against Pyfer. When Gastelum is passive early in fights, it makes it challenging for him to get back into it since he is always fighting from behind. Even though Gastelum failed to make weight on Friday, he is still the better fighter, and it shouldn’t affect his performance come Saturday night.
