Rick Story to meet Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 171

Welterweight battle added to UFC 171

by Ben Heather @benheather

On the 15th March 2014 the UFC will crown a new welterweight champion to follow in the footsteps of the greatest welterweight fighter ever. Georges St-Pierre's reign came to an end when he vacated the title at the end of last year and now another welterweight fight has been added to the card.

Kelvin Gastelum, the TUF 17 champion will return to the octagon as the UFC returns to Dallas where he will meet Rick Story.

Gastelum (7-0 MMA 2-0 UFC) capped off a real underdog story to be crowned The Ultimate Champion when he beat Uriah Hall last year. He then followed that up with a submission victory of Brian Melancon after dropping down to Welterweight and now remains at welterweight to meet Rick Story.

Story (16-7 MMA 9-5 UFC) will be looking to get his career back on track in 2014 after finishing 2013 on a high with a win over Brian Ebersole at UFC 167. The past few years he has bounced between wins and losses and a win over Gastelum would be a great way to do that.

UFC 171 is headlined by Johny Hendricks vs Robbie Lawler for the vacated Welterweight title and also on the card Carlos Condit will face off against Tyron Woodley in a fight which could see the new number one contender for the title.

If you enjoy Welterweight battles UFC 171 is the perfect event for you.

Paulo Thiago injured, replaced by Brian Melancon at UFC Fight Night 27

Paulo Thiago injured and out of UFC Fight Night 27

by Jack Broadey @J3cK_b

Paulo Thiago has had to pull out of his welterweight fight with Kelvin Gastelum at Fight Night 27 due to a knee injury. This made the UFC have to rethink who was going to go up against the season 17 TUF champion. Gastelum won that series at Middleweight before dropping to welterweight and this will be his first welterweight appearance in the UFC.

At first Cage Warriors champion Cathal Pendred offered his services and tried to rally for support to get him in to the UFC to the ufc and to step in on short notice for this fight. Unfortunately for Cathal this did not get him anywhere. I am not sure how this act may have gone down with Cage Warriors management as its not the first time he has tried to get noticed by the UFC after he defeated Che Mills he publicly called to Dana White to get him in the UFC.

Later though it was announced that Brian Melancon will step up to the plate and try to make it two wins in two months for the UFC after knocking out Seth Baczynski in the first round at UFC 162. That fight was his debut in the UFC and he dominated the whole fight and could have rode out the last few seconds of round one but he decided to push the pace and in doing so knocked out Baczynski.