Conor McGregor has advised Kelvin Gastelum to see a doctor after he posted a picture of an injury which forced him out of his upcoming fight.
Gastelum, 31, was scheduled to fight Nassourdine Imavov in the UFC's first event of 2023 this Saturday, but pulled out after losing a tooth during a training session. The injury saw Gastelum undergo surgery to have the tooth stitched back into his mouth, but McGregor was more bothered by the "hole" on the fighter's face in a picture he shared.
"Absolute scruff this thing is, that's a full on staph infection on his face," McGregor wrote whilst sharing the picture of Gastelum's injury. "A full f****ng hole omg and it's his second attempt to enter a contest like this. Wtf! Clean your mats, wash yourself. F****ng go to the doctor, scruff." It's unclear if the mark on Gastelum's face was due to a staph infection, as he only pulled out his fight due to his injured tooth.
Imavov will now fight fellow top-ranked contender Sean Strickland at the Las Vegas event, as Gastelum wrote of his withdrawal: "I’m extremely disappointed to say the least. This not how I wanted to start 2023. I worked my a** off and battled through a lot of adversary and was ready to put on a hell of a show this weekend. I apologise to Imavov, his camp as well as the UFC and all of the fans."
This is not the first time McGregor has hit out at Gastelum for having a staph infection, as the Irishman labelled him a "worm" in 2019 for fighting with the skin condition. Gastelum was battling staph before his cancelled fight against Robert Whittaker and McGregor asked the UFC to sterilise a title belt after the middleweight was pictured holding it.
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"Why is that worm holding the 185lb belt? There are worms crawling on his skin! It was absolutely ludicrous to even consider allowing him to compete. Let alone now walk around the arena shaking our fans hands. Someone sort this, this instant. And sterilise that belt. Immediately," he wrote.
Gastelum, who once challenged for the interim middleweight title, has just one win in his last six fights and didn't fight for the entirety of 2022. The 31-year-old lost decisions to Jared Cannonier and Robert Whittaker in 2021, but also picked up a rare win against Ian Heinsch that year. Gastelum also lost fights to Darren Till and Jack Hermansson after his 2019 Fight of the Year with Israel Adesanya.
