Alexander Gustafsson Not Happy With Swedish Critics

UFC Fight 53 went down this past Saturday (October 4, 2014) live on UFC Fight Pass from Stockholm, Sweden. The card featured several Swedish fighters, but it was a rather lackluster night for the Swedes. Swedish fighters Niklas Backstrom, Ilir Latifi, and Tor Troeng each lost their bouts on Saturday.

Following this card, some Swedish fans were very critical of their countrymen and not too impressed. Fast to fire back at these critics was Swedish phenom and former title challenger Alexander “The Mauler” Gustafsson, who seems a little disappointed in his hometown fans. “The Mauler” took to Mikz to voice his opinion:

“We had a bad night last evening, but my teammates are still the world’s best MMA fighters. I train with Ilir Latifi, I know he is a beast, I know how hard he prepared himself for this fight, but last night was not his night and he will come out of this much stronger. Niklas Bäckström, all of you fans have said he is the next star of Swedish MMA, I agree, he is a supertalent.”

“Now I read everywhere that he is weak, he has no jaw and other stupid things. He got hit by a overhand and got knocked out, could happen to anyone. Tor Troéng is an experienced and a smart fighter, he fought well and sometimes it is just not your night, someone just for that night is better than you. Magnus ‘Jycken’ Cedenblad, what a great fight, he really showed his heart last night and came back from the 2nd round in a really impressive win. Well done my friend.”

It was also a rough night for fighters with links to Sweden, such as Icelandic welterweight Gunnar “Gunni” Nelson and Swedish-born featherweight Akira Corassani. Nelson lost an upset to Rick Story in the evening’s main event. Corassani was also defeated, but he suffered a TKO loss to Max Holloway as opposed to the decision loss suffered by “Gunni”.

Gustafsson continued, seeming annoyed that the Swedish faithful turned their backs on the fighters:

“It’s an enormous pressure with media and PR and then coming into a cage in front of millions of people on TV and thousands of people in the stadium and face someone that wants to knock you out,” he wrote. “You have to be a fighter or a top athlete to be able to understand all we go through and sometimes we win and sometimes we lose, but we ALWAYS do our best”

Does the No. 1 contender have a point here? Despite his teammates having a rough night, being a cage fighter is no easy job. Whether you are a fan of a fighter or not, one has to respect the extreme hard work and dedication that goes into preparing for a fight. Every fighter has a bad night, so perhaps the Swedish fans could have taken it easier on their fighters