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Former UFC light heavyweight title contender Alexander Gustafsson looks prepped and ready to return to the octagon, should a fight offer be presented to him.

‘The Mauler’ has delivered some of the greatest moments ever seen inside the octagon but has been less than impressive during his recent outings. The setbacks have piled up but it looks like the Swede is now preparing his UFC comeback.

During a brief interview inside his gym, Alexander Gustafsson insisted that he’s glad to be back working on his craft. The MMA standout promised to be more dedicated in hopes of getting back into shape.

“I’m here to get back in shape a little bit,” Gustafsson said regarding his plans. “I’m here to say hi to the guys and the team and train with the guys and get back in shape myself. So, I’m happy to be back and happy to be around these animals.”

“I’m going to be here much more now. Focus a little bit more on myself, my own training, and mainly get back in shape… I don’t think about the competing part so much. If it comes, it comes. Time will tell.”

Related: Flashback Fight: Jon Jones narrowly defeats Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 165

Speaking of a potential return, Gustafsson hinted that he’s open to competing inside the cage once again should he be approached with an offer.

“I’m happy to be back in training and try to develop my conditioning a little bit more. My strength, you know, so I can grow more in myself. And then take it from there and see what happens.”

“If a fight will be on the table, let’s talk about that. Let’s see how it feels and yeah, take it from there basically.”

“Yeah, I got the contract with the UFC. [I’ve] been with the UFC now since 2009, so it’s been a while. I’m still in the business, I’m still under contract and yeah, if I fight it will be in the UFC, absolutely.”

Alexander Gustafsson last competed inside the octagon over a year ago. The veteran put in a losing effort against Nikita Krylov back in July 2022 which was his fourth straight loss in the sport.

Check out what Gustafsson had to say about returning to training and potentially competing once again below.

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Not The Same
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Sean O’Malley thinks the silk sheets and high living may have altered Conor McGregor’s mindset from what it was during his earlier prime.

Sean O’Malley has a lot of love for Conor McGregor, and even hopes to emulate the Irish sports star’s rise to fame in 2024. But he’s unsure whether “The Notorious” will be able to pull off the biggest comeback in MMA history when he faces Michael Chandler later this year.

McGregor recently announced that he’d face Chandler on the UFC’s big International Fight Week pay-per-view in June. It’ll be the first time since Conor has competed in three years due to injury, and “Suga” wonders whether the multi-millionaire can still grind like the McGregor of 2014-2015.

“I’m a huge fan of Conor and I would be very excited to watch him come back and compete,” O’Malley said in an interview with ESPN. “He’s looking good, he’s posting little videos here and there training, looks like he’s grappling a lot. So he’s very skilled, but what sets people apart is obviously the mindset — if he can get back on that.”

“You’re not going to be as good as you were if you were training and grinding for years, and then you’re living on a yacht and doing these things. You just aren’t going to be the same guy. So it’s just what you do for those three months. For three months if he’s dialed in and laser-focused on the task at hand, I think he’ll show up and put on a performance.”

There’s a lot of unknowns when it comes to McGregor’s comeback. How committed is he to training and living a clean lifestyle — the lifestyle he needs to live to hang with top UFC opponents? We know Chandler is living that life. What we see on McGregor’s social media accounts ain’t it.

Will the extra muscle Mac put on during his hiatus from the sport (and drug testing pool) help him or throw off his timing? Will he be the one to come back from an injury that ended the competitive careers of Anderson Silva and Chris Weidman?

As O’Malley said, if McGregor puts in the work for three months, he’ll be able to put on a show. But he could very well come up short against the very tough Michael Chandler. We’ll have to wait until June 29th to see how it shakes out. As for “Suga” Sean, he defends his bantamweight title at UFC 299 on March 9th against Marlon “Chito” Vera.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Despite the ugly scene it cause, Laura Sanko wasn’t offended when Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis brawled at the T-Mobile Arena during UFC 296.

The trash talk that started it all? She could do without that.

“I’m not some prude … I realize what game we’re in, right?”’ Sanko said on the Believe You Me video podcast hosted by ex-UFC middleweight champ Michael Bisping. “I actually prefer guys have physical fights than do this s*** if I’m being honest, because that way the family doesn’t get dragged into it. And that way there’s not statements and altered photographs that live on the internet for years and years and years for your kids to have to Google.

“When they get of age, that’s the stuff that really bothers me is the fact that things that are said now are permanent. If you’re going to get in a fight with each other, go for it. I actually like the fact that [Sean] fought Dricus, and I like how Dricus has handled the whole situation.”

Strickland attacked Du Plessis – before asking Gilbert Burns’ children to step aside – one day after the South African fighter mocked his experience with child abuse. Strickland was clearly agitated by the remarks, and after the UFC sat them feet from each other, he initiated a fight with his UFC 297 opponent. Security quickly intervened, and Strickland was bounced from the arena.

Du Plessis later addressed the incident by questioning Strickland’s mental fortitude while also disavowing child abuse. He also called Strickland a “hypocrite” for attacking UFC welterweight Ian Machado Garry and his wife while claiming trash talk about child abuse was off limits; Garry later did the same in a response to Strickland’s interview.

“I’m so sick of how the way that people talk shit now in the game has changed,” Sanko said. “You’ve got people out there saying there isn’t a line. Well, there is a line, because you don’t see these guys using racial slurs. They would never, because they know better, right? It’s a line, we do not cross. There is a line, it’s just, it keeps moving, and I think we need to move it back where we don’t talk about wives. We don’t talk about kids and there’s some amount of decorum.

“I miss your s*** talk honestly. I miss Chael [Sonnen], who could dress someone down in the most creative way, and he wouldn’t even cuss. I like the creativity of attacking the fighter himself. Fine, you wanna call him a p****? You want to call him blah, blah, blah. I’m not innocent in that way. But you have to quit bringing in third parties, who have very little, or if nothing, to do with what’s going on. And I’m not necessarily even like saying that Ian Gary’s situation is blameless, because he did that to other people. … Everyone is a huge hypocrites. Ian’s a hypocrite. Sean’s a hypocrite.

“Like how about we all just stop being such a******* and bring it back a little bit?”

Sanko called herself a “huge fan” of Strickland as a fighter and person, particularly in light of his revealing interview with comedian Theo Von. The UFC middleweight champ broke down as he described his abusive childhood.

“I watched his video with Theo Von, and … I commended him for it,” Sanko said. “I thought it was incredibly moving. I thought it was honest. I thought it was open. I think he will help a lot of people by being as vulnerable as he was, especially being known to for a guy who you wouldn’t think would do that.

“So on one hand, I’m giving Sean all the flowers in the world, but you can’t in the same conversation say attacking wives is off limits and then call this woman a pedophile, which she clearly is not, OK. She’s not a pedophile.

“So you literally just said, you can’t attack people’s wives, and you called his wife something horrendous, and then did it more than once, and did it where the whole internet’s gonna see that. Her kids are gonna read it. So I applaud Ian for saying something, to be honest with you. I just wish we would all stop.”

Below is Sanko’s full interview on Believe You Me.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

Former three-time light heavyweight title challenger, Alexander Gustafsson has remained coy on a potential return to mixed martial arts competition as he returns to training following his stunning opening round KO loss to Nikita Krylov back in July 2022, however, has failed to slam the door on a UFC comeback.

Gustafsson, a former perennial contender at the light heavyweight limit, challenged for 205 pound gold on three separate occasions during his tenure with the promotion, failing to strike title spols on any of those occasions.

Sidelined since July 2022, the Swede most recently dropped a first round knockout loss to Ukraine contender, Krylov, which followed consecutive losses to both former champion, Fabricio Werdum, and Anthony Smith.

Challenging for gold against current heavyweight champion, Jon Jones back in 2013 in the annum’s consensus Fight of the Year, Gustafsson pushed the pound-for-pound ace the distance in a decision loss.

Then dropping a 2015 title fight charge against former two-weight champion, Daniel Cormier in a split decision loss, Gustafsson was finished with severe ground strikes against Jones in a vacant title rematch at UFC 232.

Alexander Gustafsson weighs up UFC comeback

Returning to training amid his London knockout loss to Krylov, Gustafsson claims that while he’s not concentrated on a comeback, he failed to rule out the materializing of one.

“I’m going to be here much more now and focus a little bit on myself and my own training and mainly get back in shape,” Alexander Gustafsson told FrontKick Online. “I don’t think about the competing part so much. If it comes, it comes, so time will tell.”

“If a fight is on the table, let’s talk about that and see how it feels and take it from there,” Alexander Gustafsson continued. “I have the contract with the UFC. I have been with the UFC since 2009, so it’s been a while. I’m still in the business. I’m still under contract. If I fight, it would be in the UFC.”

Without a victory since 2017, Gustaffson’s most recent win came in the form of a brutal uppercut KO win over former champion, Glover Teixeira on home soil in a UFC Fight Night Stockholm main event. 

Would you like to see Alexander Gustafsson make a UFC return?

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

With his 39th birthday just a few months away, Josh Emmett acknowledges time is likely running out to realize his lifelong dream of becoming UFC champion.

He came close in February when he battled Yair Rodriguez for the interim featherweight title, but he came up short. He then suffered a second straight loss, falling to Ilia Topuria by decision in June. But he bounced back in a big way at UFC 296 after he went scorched earth on Bryce Mitchell, delivering one of the most devastating knockouts in the history of the sport.

In the wake of that jaw-dropping win, Emmett hopes he’ll get the chance to jump back into title contention sooner rather than later in 2024.

“[I want to fight] whoever’s going to get me to that title shot,” Emmett said on The MMA Hour. “This is my last run at the title. I’m doing everything I need to do. I’ll fight whoever I need to, to get to that title. I’d like to fight someone in the top three, No. 1 contender, whoever it is just to get me there.

“[Alexander] Volkanovski and Ilia [Topuria] are fighting in February. In a perfect world, I’d want the winner of that, but I know I need to fight someone at the very top of the crop to get back to where I was earlier.”

While he’s not known for callouts, Emmett knows in a perfect world that there’s only one real choice for his next opponent if he wants to jump the line at 145 pounds.

Former UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway doesn’t currently have a fight booked, and he’s already wiped out nearly every other top contender in the division. Add to that, Holloway’s only losses in recent years came in a trio of title fights with Alexander Volkanovski, which means he’s probably not going to get another shot at gold as long as the Australian remains champion.

That’s why Emmett sees Holloway as the perfect next step in his career.

“Max was — besides Volkanovski — he’s one of the best featherweights of all time,” Emmett said. “That was Max’s position, but I just feel like Max has beat everybody. The only person that has his number is Volkanovski. So he is the No. 1 contender. He’s cleared out pretty much everyone in the division and fought everyone in the featherweight division but myself.

“It would be an honor to fight him. That’s like a sure shot to the title. You go in and beat him, there’s nothing left but to fight for the title. If that’s what the UFC wants to do, hey, let’s do it. I want to fight whoever’s going to get me the title shot, and Max, he is the No. 1 contender.”

Emmett didn’t suffer any injuries in his win over Mitchell at UFC 296, so he plans to get back in the gym in a matter of days. He’s not putting a timeline on his next fight, especially if he can get an opponent like Holloway. But ideally that would happen early in 2024 to set the stage for a title shot before the end of next year.

“I’m going to get back into training this week and take it from there,” Emmett said. “2024 is going to be my year. I’m going to win a fight, and then I’m going to win that title.”

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Rumors are beginning to ramp up to begin the year and one fight that could potentially be in the works is another welterweight title defense opportunity for Leon Edwards.

While nothing has been made official, rumors are suggesting that Belal Muhammad will be the next man in line to contend for 170lbs gold. ‘Remember the Name’ is unbeaten in his last 10 outings and is ready to get his hands on a UFC belt.

Speaking about the rumored matchup, Muhammad insisted the champion is in for a rude awakening once they get locked inside the octagon together. The grappler exuded confidence when discussing his likely championship chance.

“I think I’m going to go in there, I’m going to dominate him, I’m going to finish him,” Muhammad claimed in an interview with Damon Martin. “I think I’m the most dominant welterweight in the division.”

“I think that, once I get my shot, the world, everybody, the UFC, Dana White, all of them are going to know that they had the most dominant welterweight to ever do it standing underneath them this whole time. And they’re going to realize, yo, we gotta start pushing this guy, this guy is a monster. He’s a beast.”

Related: Leon Edwards and Belal Muhammad in heated exchange as potential rematch draws closer

Belal Muhammad later explained how he has been constantly improving his craft and a big factor in his success is his camps with Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Believing in himself, the welterweight title contender is adamant that he’ll make it look easy against Leon Edwards if he’s given a full training camp to prepare.

“People look back at my camps with Khabib and them. And what happened after the camp? I dominated Sean Brady and I finished him.”

“Gilbert Burns, I rocked him two times in the first round. Almost finished him in the first round and that was with a couple jabs. I’m only getting better, I’m only growing. Every single fight, every single camp.”

“Now you’re going to give me a full, 12-14 weeks to fight Leon Edwards? It’s going to be the worst night of his life.”

As of now, the fight isn’t official, though some recent comments by the champion could have confirmed the date.

While attending a game featuring his favorite soccer club, Edwards seemingly revealed that he would be putting his strap on the line at the coveted UFC 300 in April.

Check out what Belal Muhammad had to say about his potential title opportunity in the video below.

"The UFC, Dana White, all of them are going to know that they had the most dominant welterweight to ever do it standing underneath them this whole time."

Belal Muhammad promises Leon Edwards "the worst night of his life" in a rematch 👀 (via @DamonMartin) pic.twitter.com/WnmsmQk7Nq

— MMA Fighting (@MMAFighting) January 7, 2024

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