Veteran MMA fighter slams Spider-Man meme faceoff for UFC Sacramento between Wes Schultz and Jackson McVey

The UFC Sacramento card (Saturday, August 22) is fast approaching, and multiple fights on it have piqued the interest of MMA fans, who eagerly await it. 

One of the matchups happens to be a middleweight clash between a pair of up-and-coming fighters, namely Wes Schultz and Jackson McVey. Their faceoff at the ceremonial weigh-ins for UFC Sacramento seems to have irked longtime MMA fighter and UFC staple, Kelvin Gastelum. 

Kelvin Gastelum addresses Wes Schultz and Jackson McVey's Spider-Man meme faceoff before UFC Sacramento

Wes Schultz boasts a professional MMA record of nine victories and three defeats. The wrestling savant -- going by the moniker "Party Time" -- is coming off a win against Ben Johnston, whom he submitted back in May. The 30-year-old is a DWCS (Dana White's Contender Series) alum who's competed twice on the UFC main roster thus far, going 1-1. 

On the other hand, Jackson McVey has accrued a pro MMA record of 7-2. "The Moose" is 1-2 in the UFC. The 27-year-old is fresh off a victory over Sedriques Dumas, whom he submitted in April. 

Schultz and McVey are booked to fight one another in a middleweight match on the prelims portion of the UFC Sacramento card. During their pre-fight faceoffs at the ceremonial weigh-ins, the two American athletes -- who some fans have deemed to be lookalikes, due to their long tresses -- pulled off a friendly Spider-Man meme finger-pointing pose together. 

For the uninitiated, the meme is said to have originated from the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon, its episode 19b, to be specific. In pop culture, it's used to depict funny situations wherein two or more people look/act like one another, as well as to highlight a case where individuals lob a similar accusation against each other. 

Watch the faceoff between Wes Schultz and Jackson McVey below: 

Are we seeing double right now....

Wes Schultz vs Jackson McVey

[ #UFCSacramento | LIVE AUG 22 at 8pmET on @ParamountPlus ] pic.twitter.com/D3i2EMuxqq

— UFC (@ufc) August 21, 2026

Kelvin Gastelum, on his part, appeared to disagree with the netizens who viewed the Schultz-McVey Spider-Man meme faceoff as funny. The 34-year-old former interim UFC middleweight title challenger implied that a sport as challenging as mixed martial arts requires more seriousness, and that the pair of young middleweights would learn it the hard way. 

Reacting to a video of the faceoff on X, Gastelum wrote: 

"This sport has come a long way. We used to have real face offs where you feel and see the gawk in each fighter's face that would melt a tank. Fighting MMA at the highest level is not a joke and shouldn't be taken as so. Lessons to be learned will be hard for these two." 

This sport has come a long way.
We used to have real face offs where you feel and see the gawk in each fighter’s face that would melt a tank.
Fighting MMA at the highest level is not a joke and shouldn’t be taken as so.
Lessons to be learned will be hard for these two. https://t.co/KHJnaWkPYL

— #OnAmission4Gold (@KelvinGastelum) August 22, 2026

Kelvin Gastelum currently competes in the same weight class as Wes Schultz and Jackson McVey

Kelvin Gastelum has extensively fought at welterweight and middleweight, but his documented struggles on the weighing scales eventually led to him choosing middleweight as his home. Incidentally, it's the very division in which Wes Schultz and Jackson McVey are trying to make a mark. 

Nevertheless, a fight between Gastelum and either of them is seemingly unlikely to materialize in the immediate future, given that the former is a proven elite, while his younger counterparts are yet to ascend the higher ranks. 

Gastelum was scheduled to make his much-awaited return -- against kickboxing veteran Yousri Belgaroui -- at Noche UFC 4 on September 12. That said, he recently withdrew from the fight, confirming that an injury forced him out of it, albeit he's promised to recover and return.