Rumors were swirling when Alexander Gustafsson posted on his blog “a lot of things is happening right now with opponents hehe but when I know u guys will know!” This was a curious post was made after he was re-scheduled to face Matt Hamill. In addition to the Swede’s post, UFC.com didn’t post the matchup with Hamill and Gustafsson for several days. Seems like the root of these happenings were based on the ongoing talks with former UFC champion Rich Franklin –after Antonio Rogerio Nogueira was injured, it left a new opening for Franklin to stay on the card if he accepted another opponent.
“It’s not that we decided to take him off the card, we were looking at other opponents and we had [one], but Rich didn’t want to take that fight,” Dana White told MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani. “He (Franklin) said ‘You know what man, I’m at a stage in my career where I only want to fight the top of the heap, I want to fight the top name guys.’ Franklin wants to fight someone that will get him back to the title, and he didn’t think Gustafsson would help him achieve this.
Now that Franklin is officially off the card, Gustafsson will be highlighted on Spike TV’s Prelim for UFC 133 against American wrestler Matt Hamill.
