Alexander Gustafsson returns at UFC 282, faces veteran opponent in Las Vegas

Swedish MMA legend Alexander Gustafsson is set to return to action.

News just broke that ”The Mauler” will be taking on Ovince Saint Preux at UFC 282 – the promotion’s final pay-per-view event of the year – on December 10. The event takes place in T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and the fight will be contested at light heavyweight.

 

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MMA Junkie was first to report the matchup and sources close to the situation just confirmed the news to Frontkick.online.

Alexander Gustafsson has lost four in a row

Gustafsson, a three time UFC title challenger and Hall of famer, is now on a four-fight losing streak and hasn’t gotten his hand raised since 2017 when he knocked out current champion Glover Teixeira. It goes without saying that it’s incredibly important for the Swede to pull of a much-needed victory at this point, especially since he was finished badly by Nikita Krylov in his most recent outing.

Saint Preux, on the other hand, is coming off a split decision victory against PRIDE veteran and former UFC champion Mauricio ”Shogun” Rua. That win snapped a two-fight losing streak.

”The Mauler” and ”OSP” have both tried their luck in the UFC’s heavyweight division in recent years. However, none of them was successful as Gustafsson lost once to Fabricio Werdum while Saint Preux came up short against both Ben Rothwell and Tanner Boser. Now they’ve decided to throw down at 205 pounds where they’ve both spent the majority of their respective careers.

Considering that both Gustafsson and Saint Preux used to be ranked amongst the top of the light heavyweight division, it’s somewhat unexpected that it took this long for them to be matched up against each other. The pair were actually rumored to have a fight in the works years ago, and earlier this year Gustafsson’s jiu-jitsu coach Alan Finfou decided to call for this particular matchup as the Swede was in need of a new opponent back in March.

Alexander Gustafsson’s BJJ coach Alan Finfou suggests Ovince Saint Preux as a suitable replacement for Ben Rothwell.@AlexTheMauler vs. @003_OSP – thoughts on this proposed matchup?#MMATwitter pic.twitter.com/4awodAGBzf

— Frontkick.online (@FrontkickOnline) March 31, 2022

Read more: Jiri Prochazka praises Alexander Gustafsson: ”He was my idol”