The owls were out in force across the MMA corners of the Internet Tuesday evening. That’s around the time the UFC revealed Alexander Gustafsson’s replacement in the main event of UFC on Fuel 9, going down Saturday from Stockholm, Sweden.The replacement…
The owls were out in force across the MMA corners of the Internet Tuesday evening. That’s around the time the UFC revealed Alexander Gustafsson’s replacement in the main event of UFC on Fuel 9, going down Saturday from Stockholm, Sweden.
The replacement: IlirLatifi.
And out came the owls. “Who?” they wailed. “WHOOOOO?!??!”
Few seemed familiar with Latifi. Actually, maybe no one was. Except, wait a second. What’s that? Someone actually suggested Latifi as a possible replacement on Monday? Oh, wait, wait…was that…was that me? Bleacher Report slideshow writer Scott Harris? So it was.
Save your jokes about the blind squirrel finding the nut. I’d rather be a blind squirrel than an owl. Burn!
But seriously, there’s no question Latifi is “flying under the radar” (to further the owl metaphor) to plenty of fans, especially stateside. But that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be an easy out for GegardMousasi Saturday night, especially given that Mousasi is also making his UFC debut, and Latifi, who is very popular in his native Sweden, will have the benefit of a friendly crowd.
Here are five slides to help you get acquainted with the UFC’s newest main eventer.
Instead, Dana White took to his Twitter account to announce that UFC newcomer Ilir “The Sledgehammer” Latifi will be fighting Gegard Mousasi in the main event of UFC on Fuel TV 9. Via Twitter:
Not to be a pessimist, but when your boss misspells your name while announcing that you’ll be fighting a UFC-ranked Top Ten light-heavyweight, things aren’t exactly looking good for you.
Instead, Dana White took to his Twitter account to announce that UFC newcomer Ilir “The Sledgehammer” Latifi will be fighting Gegard Mousasi in the main event of UFC on Fuel TV 9. Via Twitter:
Not to be a pessimist, but when your boss misspells your name while announcing that you’ll be fighting a UFC-ranked Top Ten light-heavyweight, things aren’t exactly looking good for you.
A quick glance at Latifi’s qualifications won’t exactly change your outlook, either. Aside from being a training partner of Alexander Gustafsson, Latifi is 7-2 as a professional with one no contest. He has fought one guy you’ve heard of, and lost that fight by unanimous decision back at Shark Fights 17 in July 2011. Also of note, he is only 5’8” tall, giving Gegard Mousasi a significant height advantage. It is what it is, I guess.
As MMAJunkie is reporting, Mousasi vs. Latifi will be the new main event of UFC on Fuel 9. However, due to the bout being booked on short notice, it will be three rounds instead of five rounds.
Does Ilir Latifi have any chance here, or will Gegard Mousasi be too much for the Swedish prospect? Or for that matter, does this card still appeal to you, or are you planning on watching something else this Saturday? Let us know how you feel in the comments section.
With only four days until event time, the UFC has secured a replacement fighter to step in and face former Strikeforce and Dream champion Gegard Mousasi in the main event at UFC on Fuel 9 in Sweden. UFC President Dana White announced on Tuesday that ne…
With only four days until event time, the UFC has secured a replacement fighter to step in and face former Strikeforce and Dream champion GegardMousasi in the main event at UFC on Fuel 9 in Sweden.
UFC President Dana White announced on Tuesday that newcomer IlirLatifi will step in to replace his friend and training partner Alexander Gustafsson in the main event.
The fight came together hours after the Swedish MMA Federation decided that Gustafsson would be unable to compete after suffering a cut over his eye in training. The laceration was too severe to allow the light heavyweight contender to compete this Saturday, so as the sanctioning body over the UFC on Fuel 9 event, they opted to remove him from the card.
With very little time to spare and only a few days to find a fighter to replace Gustafsson, the UFC found one of his training partners to come in and serve as the new main event alongside Mousasi.
At 7-2, Latifi comes to the UFC with by way of Sweden, but having never fought on a major show, especially one of this magnitude, the odds are stacked against the 29-year-old.
Despite his relatively unknown status, Latifi has faced some solid competition in his career. The Swede holds victories over Team Black House fighter Jorge Oliveira and King of the Cage veteran Tony Lopez. He’s also faced current Bellator contender Emanuel Newton, although Latifi came out on the short end of that fight, losing by unanimous decision.
It will be a tough test for Latifi, who accepts the fight just 72 hours away from weighing in against one of the top light heavyweights in the sport.
Mousasi will be making his UFC debut this Saturday after a long career in several other promotions, where he sat near the top in both the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions.
Following his final fight in Strikeforce in January, where he picked up a submission victory over Mike Kyle, Mousasi transitioned to the UFC with title hopes in his eyes.
It appears for the time being he’ll have to be satisfied with a main event fight in the Octagon against a relative unknown in Latifi.
Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report
There seems to be quite a bit of hype surrounding UFC on Fuel 9 competitor Conor McGregor, as he makes his Octagon debut this weekend in Sweden. A two-weight-class champion in another promotion, McGregor has been in the spotlight already with documenta…
There seems to be quite a bit of hype surrounding UFC on Fuel 9 competitor ConorMcGregor, as he makes his Octagon debut this weekend in Sweden.
A two-weight-class champion in another promotion, McGregor has been in the spotlight already with documentaries being aired about his rise to success, and that was before he ever even signed with the UFC earlier this year.
His opponent this weekend, Marcus Brimage, has heard all the stories about McGregor, and as he understands it, the young Irishman is going to be a popular pick on Saturday. He’s watched plenty of video on McGregor, and he’s not really sure where all the hype is coming from outside of a few flashy finishes against subpar opponents.
“I looked the guy up and he’s like the Irish gospel, he’s like the second coming in Ireland. Everyone’s just going crazy about him saying that he’s on the short path to (Jose) Aldo, he’s got two belts, so I really didn’t give a damn,” Brimage told Bleacher Report. “I looked up his opponents and I looked up his fights and f—king all his opponents were just scared sh—less before they ever walked into the ring. They were petrified, they couldn’t even do anything against him before the fights even started.”
Brimage is pretty positive looking at the fights that McGregor‘s had over the past couple of years that he could duplicate those same performances if he lined up similar talent.
“I told everybody I can go back to Alabama state fairgrounds, put some bums in the ring, whoop their asses, and put all my cousins in the stands to make sure it looked good. I could do that, but that doesn’t mean nothing,” said Brimage. “He fights in Cage Warriors and then he got all his cousins in the stands saying ‘Go Ireland!’ and he clowns the dude and it makes him look fantastic.”
The hype surrounding McGregor also comes with a certain level of expectation, and that brings plenty of pressure behind it as well.
Brimage has already knocked off two other competitors of similar pedigree in Jim Hettes and Maximo Blanco, who appeared to be on the fast track to fame and fortune when he beat them in the Octagon. Whether he sees his name in lights come Saturday night isn’t important, but Brimage promises to send McGregor back to Ireland with a UFC loss and a big bruised ego to match.
“I’m still gonna come up in there as the underdog, like I always am, and I’m just going to do my thing like I always do,” Brimage stated. “He’s going to come out there thinking I’m a lollipop that he can just clown and then that’s when he’s going to get a reality check.”
Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and all quotes were obtained first hand unless otherwise noted.
(If you ask us, it looks like someone is just ducking Kimbo. Photo via Esther Lin/MMAFighting. )
Put the rumors, hearsay, and outright troll jobs to rest; Alexander Gustafsson will not be fighting Gegard Mousasi this Saturday at UFC on FUEL 9. The Swede, who received a cut in training a few days back, was scheduled to undergo a second pre-fight exam earlier today to determine whether or not he would be cleared to face Mousasi. And unfortunately, the Swedish Mixed Martial Arts Federation just passed along the news (via MMAFighting) that Gustafsson’s cut was simply too severe to allow him to fight on the 6th:
The SMMAF Medical Committee has today reviewed the circumstances regarding Gustafsson and his injury. The SMMAF Medical Committee recognizes that a competitor cannot be medically cleared earlier than the day before the match. However, bearing in mind that a correct medical examination that met the regulatory demands has been performed, nothing in the SMMAF regulations hinders the SMMAF Medical Committee from making a decision to stop Gustafsson from competing. As it is clear that Alexander Gustafsson will not be fit to compete as planned and cannot be medically cleared on Friday the 5th of April, the SMMAF Medical Committee has today decided that Alexander Gustafsson will not be allowed to participate in the planned match on April 6th.
We will update you as soon as we learn of Gustafsson’s replacement, although Wikipedia has currently pegged none other than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the man to step up in Gustafsson’s absence. Should be a good scrap, but considering how garbage-ass the rest of the card is, the UFC might also want to consider forcing Wanderlei Silva to make good on his promises.
After the jump: A video of Gustafsson wrecking Jared Hamman in his UFC debut, because something good needs to come out of this news.
(If you ask us, it looks like someone is just ducking Kimbo. Photo via Esther Lin/MMAFighting. )
Put the rumors, hearsay, and outright troll jobs to rest; Alexander Gustafsson will not be fighting Gegard Mousasi this Saturday at UFC on FUEL 9. The Swede, who received a cut in training a few days back, was scheduled to undergo a second pre-fight exam earlier today to determine whether or not he would be cleared to face Mousasi. And unfortunately, the Swedish Mixed Martial Arts Federation just passed along the news (via MMAFighting) that Gustafsson’s cut was simply too severe to allow him to fight on the 6th:
The SMMAF Medical Committee has today reviewed the circumstances regarding Gustafsson and his injury. The SMMAF Medical Committee recognizes that a competitor cannot be medically cleared earlier than the day before the match. However, bearing in mind that a correct medical examination that met the regulatory demands has been performed, nothing in the SMMAF regulations hinders the SMMAF Medical Committee from making a decision to stop Gustafsson from competing. As it is clear that Alexander Gustafsson will not be fit to compete as planned and cannot be medically cleared on Friday the 5th of April, the SMMAF Medical Committee has today decided that Alexander Gustafsson will not be allowed to participate in the planned match on April 6th.
We will update you as soon as we learn of Gustafsson’s replacement, although Wikipedia has currently pegged none other than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the man to step up in Gustafsson’s absence. Should be a good scrap, but considering how garbage-ass the rest of the card is, the UFC might also want to consider forcing Wanderlei Silva to make good on his promises.
After the jump: A video of Gustafsson wrecking Jared Hamman in his UFC debut, because something good needs to come out of this news.
The long saga surrounding Alexander Gustafsson’s status for this weekend’s UFC on Fuel 9 card has finally been determined by the Swedish MMA Federation, and it appears Gegard Mousasi will have a new opponent for Saturday night. Doctors have decided aga…
The long saga surrounding Alexander Gustafsson‘s status for this weekend’s UFC on Fuel 9 card has finally been determined by the Swedish MMA Federation, and it appears GegardMousasi will have a new opponent for Saturday night.
Doctors have decided against clearing Gustafsson for action on Saturday’s card after the Swedish-born fighter suffered a cut over his eye just days away from his scheduled bout.
According to a press release emailed to Bleacher Report on Tuesday, the Swedish MMA Federation doctors first checked out Gustafsson‘s condition on March 30, but at the time had no recourse to decide if he would be able to fight or not.
“According to SMMAF regulations the competitors in a match shall be examined by the certified appointed match doctor prior to the match,” read the release. “The examination is always carried out the day before the match, this is to safeguard that a competitor shall never be cleared for a match earlier than the day before the match.
“In the case of Alexander Gustafsson there was a request for an early indicative medical examination, which was immediately performed on March 30th (Easter Eve). The federation doctors that performed the examination informed Gustafsson that his injury was of such a nature that it was very unlikely that he would be medically cleared for a match in the near future. These doctors did not have a mandate to stop the match at the time of that examination.”
The news of Gustafsson‘s pending removal from the upcoming fight card first surfaced on Sunday, when reports out of Sweden began leaking that he had suffered a cut in training and his status for Saturday’s fight card was in jeopardy.
Since that time, UFC officials including president Dana White have gone on the record on numerous occasions stating that the fight between Gustafsson and Mousasi was going ahead as planned.
Still, rumors persisted that Gustafsson might not gain clearance in time to fight on Saturday, and the doctors in Sweden decided to follow up with a second check on Tuesday and made the final call that he would not be allowed to compete this weekend.
“The SMMAF Medical Committee has today reviewed the circumstances regarding Gustafsson and his injury,” the commission stated via press release. “The SMMAF Medical Committee recognizes that a competitor cannot be medically cleared earlier than the day before the match. However, bearing in mind that a correct medical examination that met the regulatory demands has been performed, nothing in the SMMAF regulations hinders the SMMAF Medical Committee from making a decision to stop Gustafsson from competing. As it is clear that Alexander Gustafsson will not be fit to compete as planned and cannot be medically cleared on Friday the 5th of April, the SMMAF Medical Committee has today decided that Alexander Gustafsson will not be allowed to participate in the planned match on April 6th.”
The unfortunate side of this news is the fact that Gustafsson‘s exit from the card happens just four days away from the event, and the options have to be limited for what the UFC can do to even possibly replace him by fight night.
His opponent GegardMousasi is already in Sweden and obviously awaits word like the rest of the world on what happens next. UFC officials have yet to make any statement about the UFC on Fuel 9 main event.
Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report.
With only four days until event time, the UFC has secured a replacement fighter to step in and face former Strikeforce and Dream champion 
