Alexander Gustafsson's star seemed to shine a bit brighter after his epic five-round battle against Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) light heavyweight champion, Jon Jones, at UFC 165 last September.
While "The Mauler" came up short on the judges' scorecards, his valiant effort shot him to super stardom and earned him praise from the ZUFFA higher ups, as well as the majority of the mixed martial arts (MMA) community.
But according to fellow 205-pound contender, Anthony Johnson, Gus wasn't on most people's radar prior to his title fight against "Bones." It wasn't until after his 25-minutes of back-and-forth action against the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world that he became an "overnight celebrity."
That's why "Rumble" (via MMA Hour) took issue with Gustafsson's recent comments, which indicated that Johnson had yet to earn the right to challenge him, when it wasn't too long ago that Alex was merely an "average Joe," just like him.
"To me, that's what made it personal. He doesn't have to be impressed with me, but saying that I need a few more fights to get to him or something like that, in my opinion, dude, nobody knew who you were until you fought Jon. You were just an average Joe, just like me, until you fought Jon. You gave Jon a great fight, now the whole world knows who you are. You're like an overnight celebrity. That's what happens when you go in there and fight your ass off. But don't try to belittle me. You didn't win; don't make it seem like you're the champion and you can say those type of things. That kind of got to me, like he's just the head honcho when he isn't, he lost to the head honcho."
After Johnson accused Gus of "hiding" from him, the towering Swede revealed that he is now open to the bout.
And since Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier aren't set to do battle for the 205-pound strap until UFC 181 on Jan. 3, 2015, "Rumble" seems to think it only makes sense for he and Gustafsson to fight before then.
All that's left to do is get Joe Silva and Co. on board to iron out the details.