It's been a strange couple of days.
Top Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) light heavyweight contender Alexander Gustafsson was sliced open in training last weekend, putting his UFC on FUEL TV 9 headliner against Gegard Mousasi in jeopardy. In fact, an initial examination revealed that "Mauler" would fail to be cleared for his appearance at the Ericsson Globe Arena this Saturday night (April 6, 2013) in Stockholm, Sweden.
That prompted phantom match-ups like this one to find momentum on the message boards.
All the while, UFC President Dana White insisted that Gustafsson was still booked to throw down this weekend, as scheduled, because there was "no mandate to call off the fight," according to a report from MMA Fighting, who also indicated that Monday's national holiday prevented the Swedish Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) Federation from making a decision until today.
In fact, that decision is expected within a few hours.
George Sallfeldt, the president of the Swedish MMA Federation, noted that the SMMAF was first informed of the cut on March 30. He confirmed that three doctors examined the cut, which was was reportedly suffered in training, shortly thereafter and all three came to the same conclusion.
"They felt it would be very unlikely that he would be medically cleared," he said. "However, they don't have a mandate to stop the fight."
But Sallfedlt said Gustafsson is scheduled to meet with doctors on Tuesday in Sweden who do have the power to call off the fight, if necessary. If Gustafsson passes the medical test on Tuesday, Sallfedlt believed "The Mauler" would be all but cleared to fight Mousasi on Saturday night in Stockholm, Sweden.
Until then, all we can do is what we've been doing and that's wait. If you think the fans are frustrated, try being in Mousasi's shoes. In the meantime, get up to speed on everything that's happened to the UFC on FUEL TV 9 headliner by clicking here, here and here.
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