ALEXANDER GUSTAFSSON IS to be handed a second shot at clinching the UFC light-heavyweight world title.
Despite suffering a first-round defeat to Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson in his last outing, Gustafsson is set to take on reigning champion Daniel Cormier in his first title defence.
No date or venue for the bout has been confirmed, but the UFC has announced that the Swede will be first in line to face Cormier, who defeated Johnson last month to win the title that was recently vacated by Jon Jones.
Gustafsson came closer than any other challenger to dethroning Jones in September 2013 when he lost narrowly via decision, but ‘The Mauler’ is perhaps fortunate to be back in title contention so soon.
Following his resounding loss to Anthony Johnson in January, Gustafsson was then forced to withdraw from a meeting with Glover Teixeira later this month due to injury.
On the back of their recent confrontation at the UFC 187 post-event press conference, Ryan Bader was widely expected to be the first challenger to Daniel Cormier’s title. Bader and Cormier were scheduled to fight this weekend until Cormier was instead catapulted into a title shot as a result of Jon Jones’ current legal problems.
Meanwhile, it has also been confirmed that UFC 191 will take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on 5 September.
However, in spite of initial speculation which suggested that UFC 191 would be headlined by Cormier versus Gustafsson, the fighters say the bout hasn’t been booked for that particular event.
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Cormier’s team-mate, Luke Rockhold, will also be given an opportunity to join his AKA colleague as UFC title-holder.
The 185lbs division’s number one contender will take on middleweight champion Chris Weidman next, but no date or venue has been confirmed for that one yet either.
After a quarter of stoppage victories over Costas Philippou, Tim Boetsch, Michael Bisping and Lyoto Machida, few will argue that Rockhold isn’t worthy of his shot.
– Updated at 16.40
Good to see Eamon Dunphy was spot on with his assessment of Brazil during his rant at the end of the champions league final…
Piques trips don’t lie….
And then Neymar does that!!!
outrageous. great goal.Barca will be happy. the Luiz clearance was a massive turning point
game was well over when luiz cleared
Brazil are still a class team. I think they will go on and win the World Cup for a sixth time.
Not a hope, they are only good in all those “nobody cares” cups or world tours.
Titles or cups meant nothing tonight. That was a simple case of passion and “who’s the best”. What a game! Fook the begrudgers”
Some clearance from Luiz that was more impressive than Neymars goal
Trappatoni has to go!
This is Spain’s Bishop Brennan’s kick up the arse. They’ll be back.
Def not joe, Brazil seem to really want it. But great clearance by David Luiz, coulda been a draw.
After the passionate singing of the national anthem there was always only going to be one winner. Brazil were awesome at times. Great curtain raiser for WC 2014.
I hope now people stop saying Neymar is the most overrated player ever.
first time since 1985 spain lose 3-0
Shakira played a great game.
Richie sadlier sounds like gift grubs Shane lunch :D
scrappy goal.arbeloa having a nightmare. have money on Spain. not looking good at the moment
Tippy tappy taps out!
After watching that masterpiece by Brazil tonight do you all, well almost all, still think as you did last year here on thejournal.ie, the Euro is of a much higher standard than The World Cup? :) :) :)
Brazil were class tonight! David Luiz was like a man possesed! Can’t wait to see Neymar playing with Barca! The only thing I’ll say is Spain played 120 minutes against Italy,had a days less rest & that pitch wasn’t fixed up since the last match.
Best game any of you will ever see!!
That would be France v Germany in the 1982 World Cup. I haven’t googled anything, so I may have something slightly wrong.
Did you watch it at the tennis club Paul?
I didn’t see the match, just saw the goals. I did see Brazil’s games against Italy and another team and was unimpressed with the standard of football. I know football and politics are two completely different things but at a time when there is so much trouble, pain and anger in the country, a lot of which is centred around the costs of holding a world cup and having terrible health care, high taxes, poor education etc, I would have felt sorry for brazil if they lost the game because the country needs a lift and something to cheer about and there were a lot of sacrifices made for it. I was surprised to see the score of 3-0 and I wonder if Spain weren’t giving it 100 per cent for these reasons above. As I said I didn’t see the game so I’m not saying they didn’t deserve to win, I just wonder if the result would have been different if it was the world cup final at stake.
Here’s where your analysis fell down – “I didn’t see the match”. Spain looked tired and Brazil broke them. They could have won by 5
Haha fair enough
Just figured out why good comments get red thumbs including trolls……..!!
I always knew that my team would get back on track ;) also I think that they needed some time to reconnect again with the new players