Former PRIDE champion Wanderlei Silva had a good portion of the MMA community believing that he was filling in for an injured Alexander Gustafsson and fighting Gegard Mousasi at UFC on FUEL 9 this Saturday in Sweden.
However, a tweet from “The Axe Murderer” Tuesday morning confirmed what certain fans and analysts (and even UFC President Dana White) were saying all along: April Fools!
I catch you wand the best April first ever!! But I would like this to be true!!! O melhor primeiro de… instagram.com/p/Xmr70Dkq4A/
— Wanderlei Silva (@wandfc) April 2, 2013
The Brazilian brawler’s name came into play when rumors swirled on Easter Sunday that Gustafsson suffered a facial cut and would be forced to withdraw from Saturday’s headlining bout.
The 36-year-old sent out a tweet yesterday stating he was offered and accepted a fight with Mousasi and even updated by saying that he was flying out to Sweden for the event.
Oddly enough, Mousasi seemed to be just as in the dark as the fans, indicating that he would be open to fighting Silva if “The Mauler” wasn’t able to go.
Despite calls for his retirement in recent years, Silva showed he still has some gas left in the tank by scoring a brutal knockout over Brian Stann at UFC on FUEL 8 last month in the show’s main event.
Silva has now won two of his past three bouts, as well as three of his past five. His two most recent wins, over Stann and Cung Le, came by (T)KO.
While it has been established that Wanderlei won’t be fighting, Gustafsson‘s status remains up in the air as he is yet to have his cut cleared by the Swedish MMA Federation.
As of this writing, all that can be said for sure is that Mousasi still plans on fighting Saturday night.
“The Dreamcatcher,” currently listed as No. 10 in the UFC’s official light heavyweight rankings, makes his UFC debut on the strength of a 5-0-1 run in his past six fights.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com