Alexander Gustafsson to Daniel Cormier on UFC Light Heavyweight Title: “He can either fight me, or let the belt go”
Alexander Gustafsson has been one of the main-stay’s and premier top contenders in the UFC’s Light Heavyweight division for quite a long time.
Though he’s never won the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship, “The Mauler” has come awfully close on two separate occasions as witnessed from his five round wars against arguably two of the greatest MMA fighters of all time, in Daniel Cormier, and Jon Jones.
Since that time, Gustafsson has been preparing to do all he can to put himself right back in that same position as #1 contender like he was a couple of years ago.
With Daniel Cormier now holding two UFC belts simultaneously, thanks to his stunning historical victory this past Saturday at UFC 226, the UFC 205-pound division will see it’s champion be plenty occupied going forward.
Gustafsson, while he honored DC’s extraordinary accomplishment, and is respectful of his performance, took offense to some remarks the new UFC Heavyweight Champion made of him during the UFC 226 post-fight presser.
“It doesn’t sound right when he says things like that,” Gustafsson told Luke Thomas on the latest episode of The MMA Hour.
“I respect that [Cormier vs. Lesnar] is a big fight and a money fight, but the way that he says I have to do something spectacular…I think it’s a bad thing for him to say because I’m ranked No. 1 and I’ve fought everyone in the division.
“It’s not up to him to decide something like that. I don’t know what he means by that. I’ve been fighting everybody and waiting for an opportunity like everyone else to fight for the belt.”
“The Mauler” implored “DC” to decide if he wants to fight in the lighter weight class again and suggested making his upcoming showdown with Volkan Oezdemir an interim light heavyweight bout.
“He’s up there now; he has the heavyweight belt and he has the light heavyweight belt. He’s keeping the light heavyweight belt for himself, he doesn’t want to let it go. I don’t know what’s going on; he has to make up his mind and decide if he wants to come back down. I’m just going to beat Volkan and then I’m ready for him. Maybe he should just let that belt go and give it to us so we have something to fight for.”
“They should do this fight for an interim title,” he continued. “Whenever DC makes up his mind…if he wants to come down we can fight for the real title. They should make this fight for the interim title, me and Volkan — that’s the No. 1 guy and the No 2 guy.”
Should the Swedish striker get a victory over Oezdemir, Gustafsson will do everything in his power to get his long awaited championship rematch against Cormier.
“It’s all up to him. He can’t sit on his throne and decide who he fights or who he’s not going to fight, if he does that he should just let it go because I want that belt, that’s all I’m focused on after the Volkan fight. He can either fight me or let the belt go, that’s the only thing I’ll say.”
