Alexander Gustafsson trains with the All-Star Team out of Sweden alongside fellow top fifteen ranked light heavyweights Ilir Latifi and Jimi Manuwa.
Instead of battling his teammates, a contentious Gustafsson is thinking of moving up a weight class to heavyweight.
“It’s a bit of a tricky situation. We’re teammates, we are friends — close friends — first and foremost and we won’t fight each other. I want to start our discussion by making it clear that we will not fight each other, so now you all know,” Gustafsson told Viaplay Fight Week. “It’s a tricky situation, for sure. But I mean, we’ll see what happens. [Daniel Cormier] is now going up to face Stipe [Miocic], Ilir Latifi has heavyweight as a possibility. We’ll sort it out somehow. Of course we both should be able to dream of the belt and we both should get our chances to fight for the title, but we’ll see how it all turns out when we get there. We’ll see. I can move up to heavyweight, in the light heavyweight division we have Jon Jones coming back, [Daniel Cormier] who maybe is coming back or maybe not. We’ll see how it all plays out. But me and Ilir [Latifi] will not compete against each other and the same goes for Jimi [Manuwa].”
Gustafsson has previously fought Jimi Manuwa, defeating his teammate by second round TKO at UFC Fight Night 37 in March of 2014.
The fighter is willing to change weight classes if necessary, but would rather talk about it first.
“We’ll simply have to sit down and talk.” Gustafsson said. “How are we going to solve this in the best possible way? Time will tell — but trust me, we’ll sort it out. Heavyweight is also an option. I’m a heavyweight today. I’m actually only a light heavyweight during one day and that’s the weigh-in, after that I’m a good heavyweight.”
In his ten year professional MMA career, a top ranked Gustafsson has never competed in a heavyweight division fight.
