The biggest storyline coming out of the UFC 183 weigh-ins yesterday was Kelvin Gastelum missing weight by nine pounds for his co-main event bout against Tyron Woodley.
This is the second time that Gastelum has missed weight in the UFC as the previous time he missed weight came at UFC Fight Night 44 last year when he was 1.75 pound over the welterweight limit of 171 pounds.
News of Gastelum missing weight began to break prior to the weigh-ins by Jeremy Botter of Bleacher Report. Shortly after the report by Botter, their were reports that Gastelum had been hospitalized at some point. Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting and Fox Sports ended up reporting after the weigh-ins that Gastelum was sent to the hospital to hydrate.
I’m told Gastelum had flu like symptoms all week. I was told he was 5 lbs over this AM, started throwing up, rushed to hospital to hydrate.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) January 31, 2015
After seeing the report by Helwani, how could you not wonder why is Gastelum being allowed to fight. This is a question that needs to be answered by the Nevada Athletic Commission and the UFC. On Friday night, I reached out to the commission and the UFC for a comment on why Gastelum is being allowed to fight and I have not received a comment from either side.
Dr. Johnny Benjamin, who is a orthopedic spine surgeon and has provided to articles to MMA Junkie in the past did comment on the situation on Twitter. Just like myself, he is wondering why Gastelum is being allowed to fight after being admitted to the hospital for flu like symptoms.
Reports- Gastelum has flu all week, dehydrated taken to hospital then missed wt by 9 lbs. UFC nor NSAC see anything wrong w/ allowing this?
— Dr. Johnny Benjamin (@DrJCBenjamin) January 31, 2015
You do know that flu can cause brain swelling @ http://t.co/DuiQcebO71
— Dr. Johnny Benjamin (@DrJCBenjamin) January 31, 2015
Hard to believe that any respectable physician cleared a fighter that required hospital care for flu this week to compete in MMA tomorrow!
— Dr. Johnny Benjamin (@DrJCBenjamin) January 31, 2015
At this time, we do not know when exactly Gastelum was admitted to the hospital. Based on the tweet by Helwani, it seems like Gastelum went to the hospital on Friday morning. Then why would a doctor and a commission give the go ahead for the fighter to compete 36 hours later? I had one source in the combat sports industry tell me that they were surprised that commission is allowing Gastelum to fight tonight against Woodley and personally, I do not think Gastelum should be allowed to compete tonight.
The fight is going to go forward as a catchweight bout and Gastelum will be fined 30 percent of his purse. The entire fine will go to Woodley and it should be noted that the standard fine in the state of Nevada is 20 percent. With Gastelum missing weight, Woodley did not have to accept the fight, but he ended up agreeing to the 30 percent fine roughly one hour after Gastelum officially missed weight
The spotlight has been on the Nevada Athletic Commission over the last month due to the drug testing of UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and that spotlight will continue to shine on them with this situation. At some point and hopefully there will be a answer sooner than later, someone from the Nevada Athletic Commission needs to explain why they allowed Gastelum to compete after being admitted to the hospital to hydrate due to flu like symptoms.