Kelvin Gastellum now faces Brian Melancon after Paulo Thiago's injury withdrawal

Quote :

Brian Melancon has agreed to step in for Paulo Thiago at UFC Fight Night 27, which is slated for Aug. 28 in Indianapolis.

UFC officials announced the move on Tuesday.

Thiago was slated to welcome The Ultimate Fighter 17 middleweight winner Kelvin Gastulem to the welterweight division, but after the Brazilian suffered a left knee injury, Melancon will get to do the honors.

Gastelum (6-0) defeated heavily favored Team Sonnen teammate Uriah Hall at TUF 17 Finale on April 13 in his official UFC debut, becoming the youngest winner in the reality show’s history.

In the days following the win, the 21-year-old announced that he would make the move to 170 pounds.

Melancon (7-2) made a splash in his most recent fight, which was also his UFC debut. He knocked out Seth Baczynski with just one second left in the opening round of their fight at UFC 162 on July 6

http://www.mmaweekly.com/brian-melancon-agrees-to-fight-kelvin-gastulem-at-ufc-fight-night-27

So with the fact that we were all saying how Kelvin is getting as difficult a first fight as we can remember for a TUF winner, does this fall into the category of recent "convenient" injuries and replacements (i.e. Cat Zingano, TJ Grant, etc.)?

Boy does it ever.

Didn't think of it that way, but yeah you're exactly right.

I don't know why, but for some reason I have a feeling this Gastelum kid is going to end up being REALLY good. I am not even sure why, just a feeling. He seems to have that IT factor to me.