By Mike Calimbas | Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Brian Melancon Replaces Paulo Thiago; Faces Kelvin Gastelum in Second UFC Bout
HOUSTON, TX, July 23, 2013 – Looks like it will be a quick turnaround for UFC welterweight Brian Melancon, a Bayou City native fighting out of Paradigm Training Center South Rice Avenue.
The 5’8″ power puncher made hs UFC debut just earlier this month at the July 6th UFC 162 event in Vegas on the undercard of Anderson Silva vs. Chris Weidman 1. Despite being a huge underdog he was able to make his presence known by knocking out highly-touted opponent Seth Bacynski, drawing post-fight comparisons to MMA great Emelianenko Fedor in terms of his fighting style.
Speaking to him just last week, he was excited to continue his UFC year but did not know quite when he would get the call. He was hoping for the UFC 166 event headlined by Cain Velasquez vs. Junior dos Santos 3 set for Houston this October but that was not to be. Instead he’ll be making his octagon return much sooner when he takes on Kelvin Gastelum at UFC Fight Night: Condit vs. Kampmann 2, August 28th in Indianapolis. He’ll be replacing the injured Paulo Thiago on the card and will be looking for his third win in a row against The Ultimate Fighter Season 17 season winner.
Here’s the entire card for UFC Fight Night: Condit vs. Kampann 2 as it stands today.
Carlos Condit vs. Martin Kampmann
Donald Cerrone vs. Rafael dos Anjos
Kelvin Gastelum vs. Brian Melancon
Sarah Kaufman vs. Sara McMann
Court McGee vs. Robert Whittaker
Robert McDaniel vs. Brad Tavares
Takeya Mizugaki vs. Erik Perez
Justin Edwards vs. Brandon Thatch
Darren Elkins vs. Hatsu Hioki
James Head vs. Jason High
Ben Alloway vs. Zak Cummings
Papy Abedi vs. Dylan Andrews
Roger Bowling vs. Abel Trujillo