Pending Commission Approval, Tim Kennedy vs. Kelvin Gastelum Set for UFC 206

The UFC seems to be pretty confident that Kelvin Gastelum will win his appeal with the New York State Athletic Commission.

The Las Vegas-based promotion announced on Saturday night that Gastelum will face Tim Kennedy in a middleweight bout at UFC 206 on Dec. 10. However, that bout will only go forward if it receives approval from the Ontario Office of the Athletics Commissioner.

The Ontario commission will likely only give the go-ahead to Gastelum if he wins his appeal of the six-month suspension he received from the NYSAC for failing to appear at weigh-ins ahead of his UFC 205 bout with Donald Cerrone. Gastelum did not show up because he was reportedly grossly overweight, resulting in the cancellation of his bout with Cerrone. Gastelum last appeared at UFC 200, where he took a decision win over ex-welterweight king Johny Hendricks.

Kennedy, meanwhile, was supposed to face Rashad Evans at both UFC 205 and UFC 206, but a medical issue twice forced Evans out of the matchup. Kennedy will be fighting for the first time since suffering a third-round TKO defeat to Yoel Romero at UFC 178 in September 2014.