This Day in MMA History: April 14

The Ultimate Fighting Championship on April 14, 2012 visited Sweden for the first time in the promotion’s nearly two-decade history. It was apparently a long time coming for Swedish fight fans, as the 15,000-seat Ericsson Globe Arena sold out within hours, making UFC on Fuel 2 the fastest-selling European event in UFC history.

Part of the feverish response was of course due to the installment of Alexander Gustafsson in the main event. The 25-year-old was 13-1 at the time and already the most accomplished mixed martial artist his country had ever produced. “The Mauler” had followed up his lone career setback—a loss to Phil Davis two years before—with a four-fight winning streak that had fans talking about him as a possible future challenger for light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.

When Gustafsson’s originally scheduled opponent, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, was forced to withdraw due to injury five weeks out from the event, the promotion drafted Thiago Silva to replace him. Silva was something of a wild card and a no-win situation for Gustafsson: an unranked, nasty knockout artist who would be returning from a year-long suspension for performance-enhancing drugs, presumably with something to prove. While oddsmakers rightly installed Gustafsson as a strong favorite, most observers had a healthy respect for the threat posed by the Brazilian.

As it turned out, Gustafsson was very much among those who showed that respect, as he knocked down Silva early, then used his superior footwork, combination punching and much greater reach to collect a clear-cut decision in the three-round headliner. It may not have been an all-time classic fight, but it made no difference. The hometown crowd exploded with adulation at the final horn and again when the decision was read. In that moment, Gustafsson was confirmed as Sweden’s favorite MMA son, and Sweden was all but confirmed as a regular destination for future UFC events. Unsurprisingly, Gustafsson has headlined four of the UFC’s six events in his homeland and was forced out of a fifth due to injury.

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From there, Gustafsson’s star continued to rise. He defeated Mauricio Rua in December 2012, then faced Jones the following year, pushing him to the limit in one of the greatest title fights ever. He remained a Top 10 light heavyweight and challenged for the belt twice more before retiring unexpectedly in the wake of a disappointing loss to Anthony Smith in 2019. While he has hinted at a return since then, the 33-year-old does not have a fight on the horizon.

For Silva, it was just one stop in a precipitous decline inside and outside the cage. The man who had begun his career 13-0 and slugged his way to a title eliminator against Lyoto Machida finished his UFC run with another PED violation and a weight miss before being released by the promotion after his arrest for a horrifying incident involving his estranged wife and one of his coaches. While the UFC re-signed him briefly after charges were dropped, it cut him once again once additional details about the incident came to light, including disturbing video and audio. Since then, he has continued to fight, embarking on a journeyman campaign conducted almost exclusively outside the United States.

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