Midnight Mania! Gustafsson Willing to Hunt DC at Heavyweight

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Alexander Gustafsson, whose UFC 227 bout with Volkan Oezdemir fell through after Oezdemir pulled out injured, isn’t optimistic about his chances of fighting Daniel Cormier at light heavyweight, and is willing to do whatever it takes to get his rematch, including moving up a weight class. Via MMAFighting.com:

“It’s frustrating because he has something I want,” Gustafsson told MMANytt recently. “He doesn’t come back down and face me and he’s keeping the belt. But at the same time, the hunt isn’t over. … I might continue chasing [DC]. If I need to move up to heavyweight to face him, I will.”

The lanky Swede could potentially do well at heavyweight; he certainly has the height for the division. What Gustafsson is most frustrated with is the fact that blustering wrestler Brock Lesnar is the one holding up his path to the belt- either belt. He considers himself a much higher risk fight than Lesnar, and admittedly a much lower reward. He’s right about that. Cormier and Gustafsson fought to a split decision in a potential Fight of the Year in 2015, but relatively few people bought the Pay-Per-View, in DC’s toughest bout to date outside of Jon Jones.

“It’s not fun and pretty ridiculous in my opinion,” Gustafsson said of the Lesnar fight. “I don’t see the logic in this fight. It’s only a money fight [because] Brock has a big following from wrestling.

“I understand DC though. He wants to make money. It’s a better fight for his wallet, fighting Brock instead of going down to fight me. It’s a way bigger risk to fight me.”

Gustafsson also says out loud what many are thinking- that Cormier will never cut to 205 again.

“It’s funny, it’s clear he doesn’t want to face me,” Gustafsson said. “First of all, he is never coming back down to light heavyweight. He is struggling to stay at heavyweight. DC is a big boy, as tall as he is wide. I don’t think he will go down again. He loves food and loves to eat. To sacrifice so much with dieting and food and then going down to face me? I think I will have to move to heavyweight to get a piece of DC again.”

Despite calling DC a ‘big boy, as tall as he is wide, Gustafsson admires the double champion, and hopes to emulate his success. Cormier knocked out Stipe Miocic at UFC 226 to become only the second simultaneous dual-weight champion in UFC history.

“DC is smart and he’s a big inspiration for me,” concluded Gustafsson. “Thirty-nine years old and two belts. I can’t really trash the guy and I can’t really have beef with him. I think he’s great in every way, it just sucks that he has my belt. Let’s see how we solve it.”

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