The UFC Fight Night card scheduled for Berlin on June 20 has announced it will have a light heavyweight battle between Alexander Gustafsson and Glover Teixeira as the main event.
If you go back about one or two years, these were among the hottest names in the weight class. Gustafsson was riding a six-fight winning streak and he would go on to push light heavyweight champion Jon Jones further than anyone in his signature fight. But injuries and the UFC’s handling of Daniel Cormier prevented the rematch with Jones, and he has gone 1-1 since then. In his last outing, he was stopped by Anthony Johnson in less than three minutes, leaving Gustafsson far from the title picture.
Teixeira rode a 20-fight winning streak into his title fight with Jon Jones. He was known as the man no one wanted to fight in the light heavyweigh division, as several fighters turned down a match with Teixiera. Against Jones, he fell short, as the champion showed himself to be a notch above Teixiera. He lost a frustrating unanimous decision to Phil Davis afterwards, and is now trying to avoid a third loss in a row.
It should be an interesting fight, and it should be one where most of the action takes part on the feet. Heading into matches that are not with Jones, both men are usually considered the better striker, so it will be a matchup won by the man who can establish his game.
Call the bout Gustafsson’s finesse versus Teixeira’s grind it out nature. Though Gustafsson hits hard and has KO power, he counts heavily on his footwork, lateral movement and a stiff jab to keep his opponents at bay. For Teixeira, he prefers an in-close fire fight, and based on what Anthony Johnson showed us abut Gustafsson’s chin, Teixiera is going to look to land big shots. If he is able to hurt Gustafsson the way that Johnson does, Teixiera will also close out the fight. But he may be outclassed technically if he cant get through and hurt Gustafsson.
