Vicente Luque made a statement at UFC 327, submitting Kelvin Gastelum by D'Arce choke on the prelims at the Kaseya Center in Miami.
Luque locked in the finish a little past the four-minute mark, adding another choke to a run in which four of his past five wins have come by D'Arce or anaconda. The victory also came with Luque listed as the underdog, while Gastelum was moving up 15 pounds to middleweight for the first time in the UFC.
After the fight, Luque highlighted how different life is at 185 pounds. "It's a much easier weight cut. I still had to have a weight cut. I stepped in there at maybe 200, 201 (pounds)," Luque said. "I don't think I'm one of the biggest (middleweights), but still, it was hard to go down to 170 the last few years."
Luque, who debuted in the UFC in 2015 and had been a betting favorite or at even odds in all his fights until late 2024, previously turned heads by finishing Themba Gorimbo in 52 seconds as a slight underdog. He believes the move to middleweight will only elevate his performances. "For me, I can perform so much better now in training, and that's going to translate to the octagon, and that's what I want to do. … This, right now, is where I can do my best."
