For the second time in his career, Alexander Gustafsson on Saturday pushed the reigning UFC light heavyweight champion to the limit.
For the second time, he came away with nothing.
On this night it was Daniel Cormier who got more than he bargained for from Gustafsson. The lanky Swede weathered the storm of a big takedown in the first round of their bout at UFC 192 and battled back to make things uncomfortably close by the time Cormier’s split-decision victory was announced 20-plus minutes later.
Gustafsson steered mostly clear of the champion’s vaunted wrestling skills for the remainder of the fight. He peppered Cormier with stiff jabs, bloodying him under the right eye and nearly knocking him out with a knee to the face near the end of the third. He suffered the abuse Cormier dished out in transition and in the clinch and kept coming back for more.
But when the fight was on the line during the final 10 minutes, Gustafsson came up shy. Cormier kept the accelerator pinned to the floor, and the challenger just couldn’t match him.
It was shades of what happened to Gustafsson against Jon Jones two years earlier.
In that fight—where Gustafsson came in as the heavy underdog—he surprised the greatest 205-pound champion in UFC history with a barrage of strikes over the first three rounds. He tipped the previously indomitable Jones so far off his game that the European striker became the first man ever to take him down inside the Octagon.
But with Jones’ title seemingly on the verge of slipping away, the champion rallied in the final rounds. He stung Gustafsson with spinning elbows, kicks and a series of hard knees to the chin. Gustafsson faded down the stretch and—though there were some who felt he still deserved to get the nod—Jones retained his belt via unanimous decision.
So, here we are: Gustafsson is 28 years old and though he’s still regarded as one of the very best light heavyweights in the world, he’s also just 1-3 in his last four bouts.
His only victory in that span is a second-round TKO over Jimi Manuwa, in a fight that aired exclusively on the UFC’s digital subscription service. Aside from Cormier and Jones, his other defeat was a crushing first-round knockout at the hands of Anthony Johnson in January.
Now, there’s a growing sense that we’ve already seen the best he has to offer.
Gustafsson’s career should be far from finished, but it’s starting to seem as though he occupies one of the most difficult positions in all of sports: the perennial runner-up. It might well be that he is good enough to beat almost anyone in the world, except the men who are the very best.
There’s no telling exactly how Gustafsson is feeling in the wake of his razor-close loss to Cormier, but we know he took the KO defeat by Johnson pretty hard. He even told Swedish newspaper Expressen that he contemplated retirement.
“It has definitely been my most difficult period in life so far,” Gustafsson said at the time, via MMAFighting.com. “I was completely serious about quitting MMA … I just took it too hard. I didn’t have the will to continue. I was really close to quitting.”
While the Cormier fight didn’t end as quickly or as violently for Gustafsson, it’s easy to imagine it being an even tougher pill to swallow. It could put him in the unenviable company of other great fighters like Joseph Benevidez, Urijah Faber and Ben Henderson—all of whom are locked out of title contention in their natural weight classes after multiple losses in championship fights.
But there are also a couple saving graces here for Gustafsson.
The way forward might not be as bleak as we assume.
For starters, even though he came out on the wrong end, the Cormier fight was a bit of a statement performance for Gustafsson. There were those who shortchanged his initial showing against Jones, calling it a fluke after reports emerged that the champion didn’t take his training camp as seriously as he could have.
We wondered, could the competitive nature of their fight have had more to do with Jones taking it lightly than Gustafsson really being that good?
Now we have our answer: Nope.
Turns out, Gustafsson really is that good.
Secondly, the fact the he has lost a pair of nail-biter title defenses to two different light heavyweight champions leaves Gustafsson with a few good options still on the board.
We all assume Jones will return to challenge Cormier over the belt Jones never really lost. If Jones wins that fight, it could put Gustafsson right back in the mix.
In fact, unless Bones suddenly decamps for the heavyweight division, there will likely be no better next opponent for him than Gustafsson. Their UFC 165 clash remains Jones’ toughest title defense to date and the fact many continue to believe Gustafsson should’ve won the decision sustains our interest in an eventual rematch.
If it comes down to a question of Gustafsson or somebody like Ryan Bader, it’s easy to imagine matchmakers giving the Swede his third championship fight.
In the meantime, Gustafsson probably just needs to get a single comeback win, preferably against someone who shapes up as a stiffer test than Manuwa.
The fighters Gustafsson has faced to date during his UFC career generally fall into two distinct camps: journeymen and the elite of the elite. At this point, we know he’s far better than than guys like Manuwa, a fading Shogun Rua and Thiago Silva. We also know he hasn’t been able to put it all together against Jones or Cormier.
There just hasn’t been a lot of middle ground.
At this point, it could be instructive to see him fight somebody like returning former champion Rashad Evans (who just lost to Bader on Saturday) or an up-and-comer like Ovince St. Preux.
If he can defeat either of those guys, it’ll underscore his position among the world’s elite light heavyweights and justify another bite at the championship apple.
And who knows, for Gustafsson maybe the third time will be the charm.
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