Gustafsson establishes himself as a top contender

The main event of UFC Fight Night at Ericsson Globe in Stockholm featured top-ranked light heavyweight Alexander Gustafsson and second-ranked Glover Teixeira. Gustafsson put on a show in front of a raucous home crowd.
 
In five action-packed rounds, Gustafsson landed 97 strikes before scoring the finish at 1:07 of the fifth round following three vicious uppercuts that finished the durable Teixeira, who had survived multiple onslaughts throughout the fight.
 
With the impressive win, Gustafsson potentially puts himself in line to face the winner of Jon Jones and champion Daniel Cormier, who fight in the main event of UFC 214 on July 29.
 
Also expected to fight at UFC 214 is Gustafsson’s teammate Jimi Manuwa, who is also highly ranked. There is speculation that with another win, Manuwa could establish himself as the next title challenger.
 
Manuwa has said he doesn’t want to fight his teammate Gustafsson, who he lost to in 2014, which creates an interesting dynamic at the top of the division.
 
Oezdemir defeats Cirkunov in impressive fashion

Many questioned whether fifth-ranked Volkan Oezdemir was truly a top-five light heavyweight going into his co-main event fight against the seventh-ranked Latvian-born Canadian Misha Cirkunov.
 
Oezdemir proved that the shoe fit, defeating Cirkunov only 28 seconds into the first round with a counter strike that landed right behind the ear of the Canadian. This is the second straight win over a top-10 opponent for the Swiss fighter. The loss is Cirkunov’s first in over five years and his lone defeat in the UFC.

With another win, Oezdemir could enter the title picture in a thin light heavyweight division. Cirkunov, meanwhile, will take a step back, which is disappointing for many who had hoped for another Canadian contender to emerge.
 
St-Pierre attributes delayed return to eye injury

Late last week, former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre was a guest at the C2 Montreal conference and gave an explanation for why his projected return fight will be late this year rather than in the summer.
 
St-Pierre told Justin Kingsley, who was interviewing St-Pierre at the conference, that he suffered an eye injury and that his doctor advised him to avoid sparring until September.

St-Pierre also told Kingsley that the UFC knew about the injury and that he still participated in the press conference promoting a future fight between him and UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping at the promotion’s insistence.

Despite UFC president Dana White saying that he and Bisping would no longer be fighting, St-Pierre seemed to still have his sights set on the middleweight champion for his UFC return.

De Randamie refuses to defend title against Santos

UFC women’s featherweight champion Germaine de Randamie is refusing to defend her title against the obvious top contender Cristiane ‘Cyborg’ Santos.

Brian Butler, who manages de Randamie, told MMA Fighting that Cyborg “is a known and proven cheater” and that de Randamie and her team will wait to see whether the UFC strips her of her title before she decides how to proceed with the organization.

The prevailing opinion is that the UFC would never have created a women’s featherweight division if not for Cyborg being on the roster.

There should be some clarity on the future of this division in the coming weeks as Cyborg has long been speculated to be competing at UFC 214 in Anaheim. Signs have pointed to her opponent being Cat Zingano.
 
Elite kickboxer Saki signs with the UFC
 
The UFC has signed former GLORY light heavyweight champion Gokhan Saki, who has an 83-12-1 record and an 0-1 mixed martial arts record when he made his debut in July of 2004.
 
Saki, who is Dutch and of Turkish descent, has expressed interest in making his debut at the UFC’s September event in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
 
With the nickname ‘Turkish Tyson’ and 59 wins by knockout, Saki will be interesting to watch in a very shallow light heavyweight division.
 
Bonuses and Attendance
 
With several great fights and finishes, deciding the fight bonuses for UFC Fight Night in Stockholm was an unenviable task.
 
The Fight of the Night bonus went to the main event featuring Gustafsson and Teixeira. Performance of the Night bonuses went to Bojan Velickovic and Damir Hadzovic, who both scored incredible finishes. Velickovic scored a huge knockout over Swedish fighter Nico Musoke, while Hadzovic came from behind with a vicious knee against Marcin Held six seconds into the third round after losing the first two rounds.
 
Attendance for the event was 12,668 with a gate of $1.92 million.
 
The next event is UFC 212, which takes place at the KeyBank Centre at the Rio Olympic Arena in Rio de Janeiro June 3. The card is headlined by a title fight between UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo and interim champion Max Holloway with a co-main event featuring top women’s strawweight contender Claudia Gadelha and second-ranked Karolina Kowalkiewicz. The preliminary bouts air on TSN at 8 pm ET and the main card is available on pay-per-view at 10 pm ET.