UFC on Fuel TV 2 Recap: Alexander Gustafsson beats Thiago Silva
Posted on April 14, 2012, 05:02 PM by Mike DrahotaAlexander Gustafsson was granted the opportunity of a lifetime, and delivered for his hometown fans in Sweden. He faced Thiago Silva, who had only previously lost to Lyoto Machida and Rashad Evans, with a great gameplan and striking accuracy. Earning a decision victory, Gustafsson took advantage of a first round uppercut that knocked his opponent down. Silva never quit coming forward the entire bout, but seemed to be just a step behind Gustafsson's quick in-and-out style. The victory was the biggest of the young Gustafsson's career as he shoots up the Light Heavyweight ladder.
The co-main event bout started out just as promised, with both Brian Stann and Alessio Sakara willing to stand in the pocket and trade. Stann got the best of early exchanges, landing punches and some very effective knees. Alessio Sakara weathered the storm though visibly hurt, and the fight went to the ground. After some striking in top position Stann put his opponent to sleep with an elbow and two brutal ground shots.
The Welterweight fight between Paulo Thiago and the debuting Siyar Bahadurzada ended almost before it started. As Thiago rushed in, highly-touted striker Bahadurzada caught Thiago with a short right hand on the button. Thiago was knocked out instantly, and the skills of “The Great” now extend to the UFC. His 42 second knockout while moving backward was an exciting way to record the first knockout of the evening.
In a Featherweight bout that marked the debut of Dennis Siver into the class, he and Diego Nunes had a closely contested kickboxing war. Both attempted many impressive high kicks, knees, and spinning back kicks. Siver and Nunes were throwing everything in their striking arsenals, and the bout never touched the ground. In the end, Dennis Siver had a large cut over his eye but was awarded the decision victory.
The trend of submission victories from the preliminary card continued in the first two bouts of the main card from Sweden. First Brad “One Punch” Pickett had an exciting fight against Damacio Page. After trading back and forth, Pickett was able to rock Page with punches before taking the fight to the ground and finishing it with a rear-naked choke. Next up John Maguire fought Damarques Johnson in a Welterweight bout. Both fighters had their respective chances in this bout, but it was Maguire's night. In his UFC debut, Maguire foiled a kimura attempt by Johnson with an excellent transition into a finishing armbar. The entire card from Sweden featured high-level jiujitsu and submissions as a whole.
The inaugural UFC event in Sweden delivered on all fronts, with both highlight reel knockouts and many submissions. It is safe to say UFC on Fuel TV 2 was a great success. What will the event hold for the future of the UFC? Many young up-and-coming fighters showed slick submission skill in Stockholm tonight. Who should Siyar Bahadurzada fight next? Brian Stann may find himself back near the top of the Middleweight division after his brutal knockout of Alessio Sakara. Perhaps he may face Michael Bisping soon. Finally, who will Alexander Gustafsson fight next after his hometown victory? No doubt near the top of the heap amongst Light Heavyweights, is he deserving of a title shot in the near months? Can he beat Dan Henderson, and does he actually have a shot against Jon Jones?
Lowkick.com UFC on Fuel TV 2 Main Card Awards:
Fight of the Night: Brad Pickett vs. Damacio Page:A back-and-forth battle that featured power strikes and great wrestling, both fighters showed a lot of heart here. In the end, Pickett sank the hooks in for a great submission victory.
Performance of the Night: Brian Stann: Stann came to battle against an extremely game opponent in Alessio Sakara and came out victorious. His power appeared second-to-none in this bout, the only question mark that remains in his game is wrestling.
Submission of the Night: John Maguire: Maguire displayed extremely high-level jiujitsu in submitting Demarques Johnson with a vicious armbar. The fact that he stated the kimura was his move and he was ready for the counter shows the great submission IQ of the debuting John Maguire.
Photo: Anton Gurevich
Comments
Can someone help me understand the difference in strategy that Gustafsson used compared to Condit's strategy against Diaz.
It seems that they are very similar and are receiving different reactions from the fans.
probably because gustaffson was in-out-in-out-in-out, condit was out-hunteddown-out-hunteddown-out
and the volume of strikes kept most people happy, and they wern't all 'baby kicks'
and ofcourse the homecrowd of sweden wouldn't boo a swede, no matter how he won
also silvas face tells a different tale
I think if Condit had dropped Nick Diaz with a punch as he came in in the first round, many of the people would have chalked up the lack of engaging to Nick being unwilling to press the issue because he didn't want to get caught again. The biggest issue with Condit vs. Diaz was that people perceived that Diaz had taken almost no damage and still lost the fight. I was noticing those "baby leg kicks" starting to buckle Diaz a tiny bit in the 4th and 5th rounds though, so I bet people would have had fewer complaints if they saw a picture of Nick's leg a day later.
Question is why jones doesnt get any negative attention from these exact fans...
Jones fights outside the pocket and back pedals while kicking shins and kneecaps. Yet all he gets is praise for his "elite level" striking.
So from the people who say they hate back pedalers, all it takes is for the fighter to eventually get the finish and they all just forget?
Not very impressed by his performance.
I don't see how people aren't impressed by Gustaffson, IMO he looked amazing.
Rashad had a hard time with a badly injured Silva while GUstaffson dominated a completely healthy one. Machida ran through Gus but that's when Machida seemed unstoppable and was running through everyone, even now Machida is one of the best fighters in the world.
Gus completely dominated Silva in every single area of the fight and dropped him at one point with a perfectly placed uppercut. Unless you are just disappointed he didn't finish the super tough Silva (which you should know in MMA these things happen) then I don;t know how he could impress you.
Sure the Mauler isn't ready for Jones right now but I think two or three more fights and I think Gustaffson will be the hardest challenge Jones will have faced and might even beat him (assuming Jones beats everyone else).
I'd like to see Gustaffson against Bader next but dunno how long Bader will be out for seeing as he just had his first kid.
If not Bader then I'm not sure who else he should fight? Bonnar, Nogueira and Forrest are the ones I can think of before stepping up a big level to the likes of Shogun and Machida (I think he'd be better of having another fight before jumping to that level)
He'll do fine with time. But hes not as amazing as you've been touting latley. The other day you said he'll finish Thiago in round one.
Good point I did call it wrong, he did get super close though and I felt like at any point he might finish him but Silva is one tough S.O.B.
I actually think Silva looked good even in defeat, he will probably get a few more nice wins soon if he stays healthy.
after beating silva like that i can't see them putting him up against bader or bonnar, and i would fully understand if he said no, that would be going backwards, nog and forrest can atleast provide an illustrious name to put on his record so they are possible, but after hendo fights they'll be looking for new challengers so i have a feeling gustaffsons next fight will be a #1 contender bout
There's a chance he'll be fighting for the #1 contender spot btu I hope not, too much too soon IMO
Sure. Condit never seized an opportunity to create damage to his opponent. He used the sugar ray Leonard style to give an illusion he was fighting. Gus used a machida like style of attacking with a real attack sometimes with power behind it. Oh and thiago is no where near Diaz skill wise.
If you watch nick after the fight he is barely even tired and shows very little damage. He even lifts his shorts up to show he doesn't even have a welt from the leg kicks. Condit was fighting with illusionary techniques which to the judges looked like they were actually doing something. Gus rocked thiago a few times.
To be fair condit did use a great plan and had superb footwork. Diaz couldnt adapt and cut him off. I still think condit didn't win.
@movescamp- There are so many ways to neutralize your opponents ability to stay away though. You can wrestle, go for a takedown, clinch against the fence, Muay Thai clinch. With as many times as Nick successfully closed the distance, him failing to implement these looked less like him failing to adapt and more like him having huge gaps in his skill set. He actually accentuated this by getting the fight to the ground and having fairly good success there with his BJJ. It just begged the question: Where the hell was this during the first four rounds dumbass?
Hell, honestly if Nick had just been checking or returning leg kicks, he probably would have take it, but Nick doesn't fight for decisions. He's almost unbeatable when he's able to fight his fight, but he seldom fights people that can neutralize his own game, match his cardio, match his pace, and force him to think about points. It wasn't until the last round when he seemed to realize he was losing the fight, regardless of what Nick says when he claims he thought he was winning, and all his success in the 5th round seemed to be from a desperate change of tactics. If he had come to that conclusion in the 3rd, it would've been a much different fight.
He showed up to stand and bang, Condit showed up to win. Simple as that.
Gus needs more time to hone his skills before he is able to defeat the likes of Bones, Hendo, or Evans. If he can keep winning, he'll be a legit threat to the title in a couple of years.
Gustafsson looked good against Silva, who is no pushover but he still has a long way to go before he is in any position to challenge the likes of Bones Jones imo. You could definately see his potential, as in his other fights, he has great movement and footwork and he also has some top level striking but there is still a lot of room for improvement. If he continues on the path he's on and continues to improve and develop his fighting style then maybe in year or so he could be there depending on how fast he improves.....
......as for the similarity between the tactics Condit and Gustafsson used i'd say Condit utilised a lot more "running away" for want of a better term, where as Gustafsson seemed to me to be using better footwork and movement to move around the cage and used a lot more feignts. Gustafsson didn't once appear to be "running" from Thiago where as Condit was clearly "running" from Diaz and even actually turned his back and ran a couple of times. Gustafsson didn't turn his back once or "run" like i said, he just used excellent footwork and movement......
Nice breakdown. The knockdown in the first round didnt hurt this argument either. Big difference in gameplans.
john maguire submitted paulo thiago damn i missed that fight
run, rabbit run, rabbit, run, run, run.
ufc fighters are turning into 100m runners.
love thiago always ... brazilians are just beasts !!!
hopefully meet thiago and a few more fighters at the birmingham mma event in a few weeks
i rather like this new breed of fighters that don't gas and use their reach and footwork a lot more instead of just chunky powerful arms, 'chicken legs' a year ago was an insult, but if it means you can be 6'5 with a huge wingspan and still make weight it seems preferable
100m? You do realise that is a sprint?
So you're saying fighters are starting to go 100% non stop?
From the way I read your comment I took it as you were meaning they were running away from fights and being boring but you actually explained the fight as high paced and going full out.
not a bad card! Brits did well!
not very impressed with Gustafson he needs to improve a lot before a title fight or even a top 5 fight.
Not to take away from Gustafson's performance, but Silva was the same old slow and flat footed Silva.
Guys like Thiago and Diaz throw down for the most part. I know its effective but this new breed of movement and poke and run tactics is wearing on my patience. Bottom line is you see less finishes with this style and thats not really why we came to love MMA. To eaches own.
But the sport is evolving so the fighters must adjust or fall behind
Thing that stuck out to me the most about Gus was his hand speed and the snap at the end of his punches. He doesn't have a monstrous reach, but his length makes him hard to deal with. We've seen how much his standup game has come along thus far in his career, but we don't know how far his ground has come along just yet.
I just meant his reach actually isn't that long.. Jon Jones is 84.5 and Gus's is 76.5. His striking technique+style alone are impressive, the comparisons to Jones are unnecessary.
Thiago Silva is an idiot, who comes out with that game plan and expects to win. You would of thought by the third round silva would of realized he wouldnt win this fight by a knockout.