UFC officials have announced that TUF winner Kelvin Gastelum will move back up to the middleweight division to take on MMA veteran Nate Marquardt on June 13 in Mexico, City, Mexico. The bout will take place on June 13 as part of the PPV. The event will be headlined by the UFC heavyweight title fight between champion Cain Velasquez and interim champion Fabricio Werdum. The co-main event will feature a lightweight scrap between former champions Gilbert Melendez and Eddie Alvarez.
Gastelum (10-1) is coming off the first loss of his professional career against Tyron Woodley. It was a split decision loss that was extremely close and could have gone either way. However, Gastelum missed weight by 8 pounds, which was the second time he had missed weight in his last three fights. Those actions forced Gastelum to move to the middleweight division even though he was very close to title contention as as welterweight.
Marquardt (33-14-2) is a former welterweight champion in Strikeforce and fought for the UFC middleweight title against Anderson Silva at UFC 73. He is coming off a unanimous decision loss against Brad Tavares at UFC 182 in December.
Stay tuned to ProMMAnow.com for more UFC 188 fight announcements and coverage.