Following yesterday’s ‘UFC On FOX 5’ pre-fight press conference Dana White informed reporters that there was a lot riding on this weekend’s co-main event fight between Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua and Alexander Gustafsson.
“Look at the fights that Shogun has had in his past two or three fights,” White stated. “There’s no doubt about it, he is the gatekeeper right now to that title. So, if Alexander can beat Shogun, he’d get the shot. Shogun wins, he gets it. Unless there’s some crazy sh*t that happens, which always does.”
If true this is a little surprising as it had appeared that UFC 157’s co-main event clash between Dan Henderson and Lyoto Machida was going to serve as the next No.1 contender bout.
If Gustafsson wins on Saturday night then I think he would have more than earned the opportunity having already strung together a six fight unbeaten run, but unless ‘Shogun’ is very impressive I’d question him getting the nod ahead of ‘Hendo’ who beat him a year ago.
What Dana says at times can’t be taken as a cast-iron guarantee though as Machida can testify given that at the last ‘UFC On FOX’ event he was announced as the next title challenger, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens.
