For the second day in a row, we'll be talking about the potential return of a well known UFC fighter. Yesterday, I discussed the momentum towards a potential comeback fight for Zabit Magomedsharipov and some potential hurdles that need to be cleared before we actually have a chance to see that happen. We then went on to discuss some potential opponents that would make some degree of sense for all parties. We tried to balance a fight that Zabit would want, the opponent would want, the UFC would want, and what is relatively fair to the competitive structure of the sport. Today will be a little bit different because this isn't a return that was put out on the horizon. I don't think this was even a return that people were anticipating or expecting. I am of course referencing Alexander Gustafsson. Where this is different than yesterday is that there's little room for speculation. Nothing is official yet, but according to an article ran by MMA Junkie, Gustafsson's return to action is being target for the May 21 card with Ben Rothwell as his opponent. This probably won't be a super long one, but I wanted to take some time to discuss it.
I think the UFC being the first professional sport to resume after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic brought in an influx of new fans all at once and I started to realize that there may be a nonnegligible portion of the fan base that doesn't even know who Gustafsson is. Normally in a sport, new fans will come in at a somewhat constant rate and that keeps new fans being a vast minority of the overall viewing audience. I think this situation saw a lot of new fans joining all at once and gives us a situation where there is actually a noticeable portion of fans who aren't familiar with some of the fighters who are on the back end of their careers and who aren't the same versions of themselves that the longer term fans know. Some of those fans look down on new fans and I'm not really part of that crowd. If you don't understand why Alexander Gustafsson is as big of a deal as he is, then I'll give a brief run down. Gustafsson made his UFC debut in 2009 and started his run in the promotion 7-1 with 5 wins by finish. The last win in that run was over Shogun Rua, which propelled Gustafsson into a title fight against Jon Jones. I didn't have as good of a feel for MMA then as I do now and definitely wasn't as involved in the overall community as I am now, but from my experience, that fight wasn't something that people were over the moon for at the time. From my experience, it felt like a similar situation to how Leon Edwards vs Kamaru Usman feels. Everyone sort of agreed that Gustafsson had earned the title shot, especially in a division where Jon had been clearing out the top competition, but no one really felt all that great about him actually having a chance to win. There are stories that Jon didn't train at all or very little for that fight and whether or not those are true, it was clear that a lot of people had really underestimated Gustafsson's abilities as he pushed Jon as far as anyone had in his career to that point. Jon won that fight via unanimous decision, but Gus had made Jones feel human for the first time in a long time. In a strange turn of events, Gustafsson's career would never quite be the same.
After the loss to Jones in September of 2013, Gustafsson would stand at 7-2 in the UFC in a little less than 4 years with the promotion. He is now 3-5 in the UFC since his all time classic fight against Jones and I don't think anyone saw it coming. He would win his next fight against Jimi Manuwa before losing consecutive contests to Anthony "Rumble" Johnson and his second career title fight, this time against Daniel Cormier. He would rebound with wins over Jan Blachowicz and Glover Teixeira in wins that have aged nicely, but the Glover win was in May 2017 and he hasn't won since. He would lose the rematch with Jon Jones and then be submitted by Anthony Smith in a fight that saw him leave his gloves in the octagon and seemingly retire. He would make a return up at weight class, at heavyweight, a little over a year later against Fabricio Werdum in a fight where Gus just didn't look like himself. He was submitted at the mid way point of the first round in a very underwhelming performance. It really felt like that was going to be it for him, but now it seems like we'll see him at least one more time in a few months. That Werdum fight was in July of 2020, so if this Rothwell fight happens, it will be almost a 2 year layoff for him. I think that's probably a good thing and I'll explain.
I think a layoff for Gus was the best thing for him. He came back at heavyweight and he didn't look like his old self in hardly any way. I say it all the time, but I'm not big on criticizing fighters because I've never fought and I'm not even in great shape, but he just didn't seem ready or really into the fight versus Werdum. He seemed more like someone who came back at heavyweight out of necessity than it being an intentional move that was prepared for. I hope that Gus is fighting because he wants to and not because he has to. The way he looked physically and the way his performance matched that, it raised a lot of questions for me. This Rothwell fight is being rumored now for late May, which I do think is a good sign. We're more than 3 months out, which means Gustafsson will have plenty of time to prepare and I think we're going to see a much better version of him. I hope he's in a much better spot this time around because a repeat of the Werdum fight would be an unfortunate way to end things for him. He's had such high, highs in his career that finishing this low just wouldn't feel right, but that's typically how things go in this sport. We don't often get the Tom Brady or Ben Roethlisberger type send offs where guys just walk away while they are still productive. Often times in MMA, our legends go out ugly, and it never gets easier for me to watch. At age 35, I don't know if Gus has another title run in him, especially given his activity levels since 2013. Gus has fought in every year since 2013 except for 2021, yet he's only fought twice in year once in that time, which was 2015 when he lost to Rumble and DC. Just because a title shot seems a little far fetched right now, doesn't mean its impossible and it doesn't mean that he can't put on some fun fights, have good performances, and earn a paycheck. I'm interested to see this fight and I just hope that Gus is in it for the right reasons. I want to see him perform well and I have confidence that he'll look much more like the Gustafsson that we know rather than the one from the Wedum fight.
What do you guys think? Can Alexander Gustafsson turn things around? Will we get vintage Gus against Ben Rothwell? Can he make a run with whatever time he has left? Leave any and all thoughts below. As always, thanks for reading and have a good one.
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