Maybe you still think Kelvin Gastelum is an elite welterweight with an extra 15 pounds on him, and you may be right. However, regardless of whether or not Gastelum ever makes 170 pounds again, this update of the official Sherdog rankings has him right in the middle of things at 185.
As they say, though, all is well that ends well. Instead of Silva, Gastelum wound up taking on a more relevant opponent at UFC Fight Night 122 in Shanghai: recently deposed middleweight champ Michael Bisping. Even better for Gastelum -- and certainly worse for the UFC’s self-regulatory reputation -- “The Count” was just three weeks removed from a violent title loss to Georges St. Pierre, making the Arizona native’s job that much easier. Gastelum needed just 2:30 to remove Bisping from consciousness and join our middleweight rankings at No. 6.
Bisping, who began the month as the No. 1 middleweight in the world and a part of our pound-for-pound list, tumbles to the seventh spot in defeat. Coincidentally, Gastelum’s ascent from our bubble list has also knocked Silva from the 10th spot to the “other contender” periphery. The middleweight contenders list is also where we find the lone other change in this update: With his Nov. 19 win over four-time Olympic judoka Daniel Kelly in Sydney, Elias Theodorou is now 6-2 in the Octagon and our figurative 15th man at 185 pounds.
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