Kelvin Gastelum ducked Yoel Romero at UFC Belem, according to manager

Surging Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight contender, Kelvin Gastelum, was disappointed after promotion matchmakers overlooked him when it came time to book an opponent for division champion Robert Whittaker.

Read those comments here.

Maybe giving the nod to former 185-pound kingpin Luke Rockhold was punishment for Gastelum’s decision to turn down a Yoel Romero fight in the UFC Belem main event, scheduled for Feb. 3, 2018 inside Mangueirinho Gymnasium in Brazil.

That’s according to manager Malki Kawa.

Gastelum has yet to respond, but hopefully he does so in this manner.

Whittaker, who became interim champion by defeating Romero at UFC 213 last July, was recently named undisputed champion when Georges St-Pierre unsurprisingly relinquished the title he stripped from Michael Bisping at UFC 217 in New York.

“The Count” tried to rebound against Gastelum and got KTFO for his efforts.

Rockhold coughed up the crown to Bisping at UFC 199, then took a break from combat sports to spend his time arguing with promotion president Dana White on Twitter. He eventually returned to the Octagon and broke David Branch in Pittsburgh.

That's how we ended up with this.