Kelvin Gastelum has often struggled making weight when competing in the welterweight division during his UFC career and his Fight Night matchup with Daniel Rodriguez scheduled for Saturday in Saudi Arabia has been changed to a middleweight contest because his weight issues have resurfaced.

The UFC officially changed Gastelum vs. Rodriguez from a welterweight bout to a middleweight bout on Thursday after Gastelum acknowledged his weight this week was an issue.

“I am pretty worried this week,” Gastelum told reporters early Thursday when asked how his latest cut down to 170 pounds was going. “We’re going to talk with the manager and come up with the best game plan, but I think we’re in for a rough weight cut.”

Gastelum added that he has not had the best training camp but did not reveal the specific reasons.

Rodriguez explained to reporters in Riyadh that he tried to push for a catchweight bout but suggested his opponent would’ve even had trouble cutting to 180 pounds, which is why it’s now being contested in the 185-pound weight class.

“He must be having such a bad fight camp that he can’t even make 180,” Rodriguez pondered. “I’m currently 179 pounds, so I have to put weight back on. It’s been 13 weeks since I found out about this fight, (I assume same for him) so the fact that he’s saying that he’s having a bad fight camp it makes no sense and I feel like it’s a lack of discipline. I don’t know if he’s having a bad fight camp or if he’s just being lazy and doesn’t want to cut the weight.”

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Gastelum has bounced between the 170- and 185-pound weight classes throughout his UFC tenure. The 32-year-old star was submitted by Sean Brady in December in a welterweight contest in his first fight below the middleweight division since 2016.

Gastelum won The Ultimate Fighter 17 as a middleweight in 2013 to break into the UFC before dropping down to welterweight following his run on TUF 17, although it didn’t take long for Gastelum to begin having issues making the 171-pound limit for non-title welterweight contests.

He missed weight ahead of his fight with Nico Musoke in 2014, missed by nearly 10 pounds before he fought Tyron Woodley to a split decision in 2015, and missed a third time prior to his win over Johnny Hendricks in 2016.

Gastelum was forced by the UFC to move up a division after missing weight vs. Hendricks and he went on a successful run at middleweight. His interim title fight with Israel Adesanya five years ago is considered a modern classic but Gastelum is 2-6 in the UFC since 2019.

This is not the first time Rodriguez has been asked to fight at a higher weight on short notice. The 37-year-old was part of the last-minute UFC 279 fight card changes that saw him get moved from a scheduled welterweight fight vs. Kevin Holland to a 180-pound catchweight bout with Li Jingliang.

Rodriguez beat Jingliang by unanimous decision but has since lost two in a row. He was submitted by Neil Magny in 2022 and was finished by Ian Machado Garry via technical knockout 13 months ago. He will be competing for the first time since he was handed a reduced three-month suspension late last year after testing positive for a banned substance that he proved was due to a contaminated supplement.

It was not immediately clear whether Gastelum would be fined a percentage of his purse, which is what typically happens when a fighter misses the weight at which they were contracted to compete.

Kelvin Gastelum overweight; bout vs. Daniel Rodriguez now set for middleweight

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