Alexander Gustafsson Off UFC 227, DC & Anthony Smith Comment

Alexander Gustafsson was supposed to fight Volkan Oezdemir next month at UFC 227, but Oezdemir suffered an injury and was pulled from the card.

The Swedish star has now been pulled from the card as well, with a “minor injury” being the cause for Gustafsson’s withdraw.

Moments Sports Management represents the UFC star and they issued the following statement to MMA Junkie about their fighters injury:

“Alex Gustafsson is out of UFC 227 with a minor injury. The injury occurred last week. Since that time, we have been working closely with the UFC doctors, our doctors in Sweden, and the experts at the UFC Performance Institute. We have been advised that Alex has a minor injury, and he will not be permitted to compete at UFC 227. Had Alex been fit to fight, we were prepared to face (Khalil) Rountree or anyone else the UFC had asked us, including (Daniel) Cormier at heavyweight. Alex will be fighting again very soon. He will give his side of the story shortly. We don’t care who the opponent is. But whomever we face it should be for the meaningful result of the LHW UFC Title.”

It should be noted that neither the UFC, Gustafsson or his management team has revealed what the “minor injury” actually is.

Two division UFC champion Daniel Cormier has been in a back and forth with Gustafsson for quite some time now and he is also disappointed by the fighter’s sudden withdraw from UFC 227.

DC would issue the following thoughts through an Instagram post:

 

Dear Alex, I don’t know what happened to you going back to the Rockhold situation. You have always been a stand up guy but your behavior changed. From calling a guy out the day after he got knocked out, to now offering to fight me knowing I have a broken hand, after Volkan couldn’t go. Now you’ve turned down Jan, turned down Khalil all while calling for a heavyweight title fight. Now, moments after Anthony Smith does his work like an animal you decide you’re hurt. Man, I respect you as a fighter. I will always be grateful for October 2015, but you and I won’t share the octagon again. I am disappointed in who you’ve become. You are so entitled, man, I can’t deal with delusional people. Good luck recovering. Our time has passed. See you from the commentary table. DC @alexthemauler #wegoourseparateways

A post shared by Daniel “DC” Cormier (@dc_mma) on Jul 22, 2018 at 5:12pm PDT

Cormier and Gustafsson first met back at UFC 192 and the two division champion picked up a razor thin decision win on that night.

Anthony Smith pulled out a first round knockout victory over former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Mauricio Rua at UFC Fight Night Hamburg, which would then lead to Smith saying that he would fight Gustafsson on short notice at UFC 227.

Smith would hear about Gustafsson dropping out of the event a short time later, a situation the fighter would call “ironic.”

“That’s ironic, isn’t it?” Smith said after the event. “That’s kind of weird how that works out. He needed an opponent yesterday. What happened between then and now? I don’t know. That’s mighty ironic. I think that I’m a hard guy to train for; I really do. I show up with a different product every time I fight.”

UFC 227 takes place on Saturday, August 4 from the Staples Center in Las Angeles, California with TJ Dillashaw and Cody Garbrandt headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.