Report: SMMAF facing internal review after pulling Alexander Gustafsson from UFC on FUEL TV 9

Now that the dust has settled and the smoke has cleared from the UFC on FUEL TV 9 event (results here), which was held on April 6, 2013 at the Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden, it's time to look back to try to figure out how this thing went off the rails in the week leading up to the fight.

Not that Ilir Latifi is complaining.

"The Sledgehammer" now has a job with Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) after stepping in for Alexander Gustafsson at the last minute. True, he was out of shape and overmatched against Gegard Mousasi (see his beating here), but the show must go on.

And go on it did.

Unfortunately for some fans, it did so without "The Mauler," who was busted open in training prior to the event (see the pic here). The Swedish Mixed Martial Arts Federation (SMMAF) ruled him medically unfit to compete, much to the chagrin of UFC President Dana White, who claims it was a bad -- and perhaps premature -- decision.

Maybe, maybe not.

Cage fighting is relatively new in Sweden and protocol is reactive rather than proactive. At least for now. With that in mind, SMMAF President George Sallfeldt told Telegraph Sport there will be an internal inquiry to see if, when and how the situation could have been handled differently:

"We will be looking into the situation that happened, and the way it happened. We'll be asking the medical committee how they arrived at their decision [on the Tuesday night] and why it was made when it was. It someone contacts the federation it is difficult to do anything different to what happened. But I have to say that this situation has never happened before."

While they're at it, maybe they can ask Wanderlei Silva how he arrived at this decision.

White uses this pic to argue that had the commission waited until the weigh ins to make its final decision, it may have seen how much healing progress Gustafsson made. Not that it would have made a difference to "The Dreamcatcher," who promised to pound the pupils on fight night.

Chalk this one up to a learning experience, I suppose.