The Ultimate Fighting Championship is working to put together a light heavyweight matchup for the upcoming UFC 133 event in August between Vladimir “The Janitor” Matyushenko (25-5) and Alexander “The Mauler” Gustafsson (11-1).
News of the fight surfaced at MMAjunkie.com who learned of the bout from sources close to the event, noting that verbal agreements have been made and that contracts are expected to be finalized soon.
The unofficial UFC 133 event has seen its fight card filling up over the past few weeks, which includes a light heavyweight bout between former champ Rashad Evans and Phil “Mr. Wonderful” Davis. With the Matyushenko vs. Gustafsson bout the card sits unofficially at nine matches, and could also see a UFC featherweight title bout between champ Jose Aldo versus challenger Chad Mendes.
UFC 133 is expected to take place on Aug. 6 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Matyushenko is coming off a stunning twenty second knockout win over Jason Brilz at UFC 129 last month. The win was “The Janitor’s” second straight and fifth victory in six bouts. Previous to the Brilz win, he stopped Alexandre Ferreira via TKO last November at UFC 122. Matyushenko’s last loss was to Jon Jones at the UFC Live: Jones vs Matyushenko event last August.
Gustafsson has also won two straight with a 3-1 record in the UFC. The Swedes last Octagon appearance was back in February at UFC 127 where he earned a first round submission over Australian James Te-Huna. He also submitted French striker Cyrille Diabate in October at UFC 120, while suffering his first loss to Phil Davis at uFC 112 in Abu Dhabi last year.