Tim Kennedy isn't fighting at UFC 205 due to some medical issues his opponent is going through. He still has his opinion about what's going down with the card though, especially since one of his teammates is now off the card as well. Submission Radio caught up with Kennedy to ask him about Kelvin Gastelum and Thiago Alves badly missing weight. And as usual, Kennedy didn't hold back at all:
"It’s so disrespectful. I mean, it’s so unprofessional. I can’t even process what’s going through somebody’s head to make a choice – and they’re choices – about not making weight. Leading up to the fight, it’s what you’re eating, it’s how hard you’re training, your caloric intake, how much you’re burning. These are all literal choices that an athlete makes. That is a lazy disrespectful asshole that’s doing that. It’s disrespectful to your opponent, it’s disrespectful to the fan. That’s Kelvin Gastelum and Thiago (Alves) saying, ‘I don’t care about the fans’. That’s what they’re doing.
"They don’t care about the sport, they don’t care about their integrity – because that’s what it is. I signed a contract that on this day, this Friday, I will step on the scale and weigh ‘this’. That’s what it says in the contract – and in return you’ll pay me. That’s the point in being a prize fighter. So now they’re breaking their word, they’re breaking their contract and they’re disrespecting their opponent – but worst of all, they’re saying ‘fuck you to the fans’."
Gastelum's fight with Donald Cerrone is now off, and he has since been banished to the middleweight division by UFC president Dana White, opening an opportunity for Kennedy to avenge his teammate in the future. Would he fight Gastelum? You bet he would:
"Kelvin, he’s a tough guy, he’s a talented guy, and right now he’s disrespecting his opponent – Cowboy, my friend and he’s disrespecting the fans. So I’m still gonna do what I’m gonna do, which is fight. I’m a fighter. I’m a prize fighter, that’s what I came here to do. So if they ask me, absolutely I’d fight him."
Check out the rest of the interview above, where Kennedy talks about wanting to fight anyone he can at UFC 205, even if it's a heavyweight; and more of his thoughts on Gastelum as a potential opponent in the future.
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