After 15 years and 18 fights, former UFC Gentle Heavyweight title challenger Alexander Gustafsson is leaving the promotion in quest of greener pastures.
In a current interview with Matias Andres of Most Sports activities, Alexander Gustafsson’s supervisor Majdi Shammas provided a number of essential updates to his shopper’s profession. In the beginning, Shammas revealed that Gustafsson requested for and was granted his UFC launch.
“We requested the UFC to launch Alex from his contract,” He defined. “They agreed, and we’re grateful for that.”
Gustafsson, age 37, hasn’t fought since a July 2022 defeat to Nikita Krylov (watch it). Regardless of ending his UFC run on a four-fight dropping streak, the previous three-time title challenger continues to be an interesting identify for rival promotions. Notably, Shammas revealed that Gustafsson has signed a profitable contract with World Struggle League, the upstart promotion swooping up UFC veterans like they’re going out of season.
“It’s a really enticing contract,” Shammas continued. “Alex just isn’t locked to the GFL and he’s mainly free to choose and select and tackle other forms of bouts as properly, which is nice for us. There are loads of fascinating issues that might come up alongside the way in which.”
He continued, “The GFL has given us a really interesting deal at this stage of our careers, and it’s merely the suitable time and the suitable place to strike a deal like this.”
Along with the GFL contract, Shammas additionally revealed that Gustafsson has a suggestion from Naked Knuckle Combating Championship (BKFC), one other promotion with a behavior of recruiting ex-UFC expertise. The deal continues to be unsigned, however per Shammas, Gustafsson will probably debut reverse one other well-known ex-UFC or Bellator fighter.
“BKFC is and has provided us an ideal deal,” He concluded. “It’s on the desk. We haven’t signed but, however we now have mentioned it and can almost certainly settle for. Then Alex will get to face some UFC or Bellator veteran.”
Maybe a brand new scene is precisely what Gustafsson requires to get again within the win column. The Swedish fighter hasn’t gained since 2017, however that victory is arguably his greatest, a five-round shellacking of future champion Glover Teixeira. He’s solely misplaced to top-ranked opposition within the years since, so not all hope is but misplaced for the favored contender.
