John Morgan from MMAJunkie is reporting that Alexander Gustafsson has been injured and is no longer able to compete on the UFC 227 PPV against Anthony Smith.
Well, before everyone gets too excited about Gustafsson-Smith, I’m told by multiple UFC officials that Alex is actually hurt and out of 227.
— John Morgan (@MMAjunkieJohn) July 22, 2018
It is being reported that Gustafsson pulled out from the August 4th Fight due to a “minor injury”. Following the initial report from MMA Junkie, Gustafsson’s manager Nima Safapour also confirmed the news to MMA Fighting on Sunday.
Alexander Gustafsson’s manager Nima Safapour issued the following statement to MMA Fighting regarding the fighters status:
“Alex Gustafsson is out of UFC 227 with a minor injury. The injury occurred last week. Since that time, we have been working closely with the UFC doctors, our doctors in Sweden, and the experts at the UFC Performance Institute. We have been advised that Alex has a minor injury and he will not be permitted to compete at UFC 227. Had Alex been fit to fight, we were prepared to face Roundtree or anyone else the UFC had asked us; including DC Cormier at heavyweight.
Alex will be fighting again very soon. He will give his side of the story shortly. We don’t care who the opponent is. But whomever we face it should be for the meaningful result of the LHW UFC Title.”
A follow up statement was issued from Safapour, stating:
“Doctors pulled Alex from the card last Friday. Days before Anthony was to compete. Before that we were trying to stay on the card. Assuming we could get cleared, we were prepared to face anyone. We assumed it would be Rountree as he was ready fight, and we were told Jan would fight at another time. We also offered to fight DC at heavyweight if he was healthy. So Alex was prepared to face anyone, ranked or unranked. But the doctor’s said he was unfit to compete.
It was determined last Friday he would not be on the card. Days before the Smith contest.”
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