Chris “Action Man” Curtis does not believe he got a fair shake in his decision loss to Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 287.
The middleweight bout headlined the preliminary card and featured sustained action throughout. Gastelum managed the pace and landed the more telling shots to earn a close, but clear decision. Curtis doesn’t see it that way and is crying foul due to the circumstances surrounding their fight.
Curtis had a full-on meltdown on social media concerning his loss. He went from complaining about a headbutt swaying the judges to arguing who was better between Dame Anderson and Adonis Creed (Yes, from Creed III. The guy is nuts), to his intent on appealing.
Because no insecure crybaby is complete without a conspiracy theory, Curtis has one also. He claims that Gastelum’s comeback narrative more or less scored sympathy points with the judges.
“I feel like I lost via storyline. We split the fight one round a piece. Second round came down to a headbutt the ref missed and like some follow-up strikes in a round I was winning. All I gotta hear is this bulls—t about, ‘Oh, Kelvin’s back. He’s this, this, and this. He’s returned. It’s the best Kelvin he’s been.’ Yeah, but I was better than you that night. Lo and behold, f—k it. People are stupid and they love their storylines, so here we are.”
Chris Curtis on why he lost to Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 287.
Not the first time Chris Curtis blows a gasket
It isn’t a good look that Curtis lost to a fighter who was on a 1-5 streak coming into their fight. Many MMA experts saw this as a winnable fight for him, and he came up short in competitive showing.
Instead of going back to the drawing board, Curtis is showing his lack of mental toughness. In the months leading into the fight, Curtis made a big stink about being left off the main card for Raul Rosas.
At least Curtis isn’t retiring again. When he wasn’t offered a contract after appearing on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2018, he decided to quit the sport. One year later, now fighting for PFL, Curtis retired twice in one night after losing to Magomed Magomedkerimov, then later to Ray Cooper.
Staying true to form, Curtis hopes a baseless appeal absolves him. Unfortunately, it means that the problems that have stunted his development and maturation as a fighter aren’t going anywhere.
