For Swede fighter Alexander Gustafsson (14-1), nothing could be better than a main event win in front of the home crowd at Saturday’s UFC on Fuel card.
The six-foot-five (194cm) fighter has also just cemented himself in the top tier of the UFC light-heavyweight division.
Going into the weekend’s bout against Thiago Silva (14-3 (1NC)), Gustafsson was heavy favourite; backed with decisive wins in either stand-up or ground work, and looking to utilise his four-inch height advantage over his competitor.
In Silva’s case, ring rust was a concern, as he was coming off a 12-month suspension given due to a synthetic urine sample given after his win at UFC 125.
With the crowd rivalling any of those in Canada or Brazil, Gustafsson was facing the toughest fight in his career, a chance to propel himself further towards a showdown with either current champion Jon Jones (15-1) or Rashad Evans (17-1-1), who are fighting at this weekend’s UFC 145, and to gain notoriety within the sport.
Gustafsson was able to execute a perfect game plan, successfully picking apart Silva in rounds one and two; maintaining both control of the octagon and stand-up defence, resulting the Silva’s hits not getting through as intended.
On multiple occasions he was even likened to Jon Jones; however his style was certainly influenced by training partner and UFC bantamweight champion, Dominick Cruz (19-1).
For many, the night seemed to be ending early when Gustafsson landed a right uppercut, knocking Silva to the ground, and followed up with some heavy-handed ground and pound. Somehow Silva managed to survive, however a little worse for wear.
Silva managed to get some ground late in the third, landing hits and getting Gustafsson on the back foot, however it was too little too late as the Swede got the nod from the judges and won the fight in a unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28).
When asked in the cage who he would like to fight next, Gustafsson said, “I just want to take the fights the UFC gives me.”
Would it have been a bad thing to call out the winner of this week’s battle for the light-heavyweight title? No, it wouldn’t.
While Gustafsson has been climbing the ladder, he really would have made a big scene had he done the call out; stating that you will fight whoever they give you does well for your nice guy image, however doesn’t show the gutsy fire in your belly in the quest to be the title holder.
With the division often encountering queued title fights due to the amount of possible contenders, Gustafsson wouldn’t have had the next shot anyway; Dan Henderson (29-8) has been quietly waiting in the wings since UFC 139 in November 2011.
A fight that could be considered in Gustafsson’s favour is a bout with former champion Maurico “Shogun” Rua (20-6). Not only would this suit the Swede’s style of fighting, but Rua is an upper echelon fighter in the division than Gustafsson needs to be more of a threat to the title.
For Silva, he could potentially be up for a rematch with Brendon Vera (12-5 (1 NC)) depending on the outcome of the Vera versus James Te-Huna (14-5) match-up at UFC on Fuel TV 4.
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