Alexander Gustafsson (photo via UFC/Twitter)

By FCF Staff

The news Alexander Gustafsson is moving up to heavyweight to face Fabricio Werdum seemed to surprise many. But, recently ‘The Mauler’ explained why he’s decided to leave light heavyweight behind him for now.

Not long ago, it was confirmed that Gustafsson is coming out of retirement and that he will face the former heavyweight champ, Werdum, on July 25th. The 33 year-old recently spoke with MMA Viking, and while doing so, he explained why he’s moving up a weight class (quotes via MMA Junkie).

“I’m taking one fight at a time,” Gustafsson said. “I’m fighting Fabricio now in heavyweight, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stay in heavyweight. We’re taking it one fight at a time and see what’s the next move.”

“We dropped a couple of names in heavyweight because I thought about it and it feels like that’s the best decision for me now,” Gustafsson added. “Because I’m pretty big at light heavyweight, and I always have to cut maybe 15, 17 kilos every fight so I just wanted to challenge myself a little bit and yeah, just to challenge me and see how all this will be and I’m really looking forward to it.”

After Gustafsson (18-6) was submitted by Anthony Smith last year, which followed a stoppage loss to Jon Jones, he announced he was retiring.

The 42 year-old Werdum (23-9-1), meanwhile, is coming off a split decision loss to Alexey Oleynik in May. Before that, in March, 2018, ‘Vai Cavalho’ was knocked out by Alexander Volkov.

The July 25th, UFC event will be hosted by Yas Island in Abu Dhabi.