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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Kelvin Gastelum's coach, Chance Farrar, opened up a bit in an interview with Marc Raimondi at MMAFighting.com about Gastelum not making weight on Friday, and his comments raise serious questions as to why Gastelum is being allowed to fight tonight at UFC 183.
According to Farrar, Gastelum's cut had been going fine, but at one point in the day they found him "non-responsive" in the hotel room, and he began vomiting badly to the point they rushed him to the hospital.
"He wasn't vomiting food," Farrar said. "It was more like mucus. He was in a bad state where he couldn't get himself off the floor. I had to pick him up. I was scared. I've never had an athlete do that before. That's the long and short of it."
"I was thinking the fight was off. There's no way this guy is fighting, it's done... That was kind of the attitude. Maybe it was a little bit quick to the make the decision, but that's how I felt at the time."
Farrar expressed his concerns about Gastelum coming into the fight at a less than optimal condition, but said the commission cleared him, and he left the decision to fight to Gastelum himself.
"I always leave these decisions up to Kelvin," Farrar said. "I'm a coach. Of course, I'm a support system. Do I think that he's 100 percent? I do not, no. Do I think that he'll do great and that he's capable of winning the fight? Absolutely. He'll come to fight."
Penick's Analysis: I don't understand how the commission could clear Gastelum given what happened here. It's absolutely not in line with keeping "fighter safety" at the forefront, as they've tried to claim so many times over, and he's bound to be considerably diminished even if he wants to fight on. He'll come to fight, sure, but he's not going to be in great condition for this one, and that could be very bad for him against someone like Tyron Woodley.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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