By Guilherme Cruz

Photo by UFC

Alexander Gustafsson is the new promises of UFC in the light heavyweight, but he will have to be tested. The Sweeden was chosen to be one of the stars of the main event on the first edition of the show in his coultry, on April 14, against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, and guarantees he’s sharp enough to go.

“I'm training very hard here in Stockholm, Sweden, at my home club nexus fightercenter. I train both here in swe and US. I train with Phil Davis, Joey Beltran, Dominick Cruz, Brandon Vera and many more”, said Gustafsoon, on an exclusive interview conceded to TATAME, complimenting a lot his opponent. “He is very tough guy. He's a legend in the sport”.

Alexander is coming from four great wins in the UFC, all via knockout or submission, and called everyone’s attention as he sent the veteran Vladimir Matyushenko to the floor in December of 2011. “Just train hard every day”, that’s the secret, he guarantees.

Is fighting in front of 14 thousand countrymen an extra pressure on his shoulder? “No, just super happy to fight on home ground”, affirmed the light heavyweight fighter, comparing how big MMA is in his country to England, recognizing it’s a lot smaller than it is in the US, Canada and Brazil.

With only one loss in 14 MMA bouts disputed, being his loss via submission to Phil Davis, Alex says he learned a lot from it. On the next couple of fights came the prove: he used the ground game to defeat Cyrille Diabaté and James Te-Huna, both using a rear naked choke. “I learned to be a better fighter overall”, says.

On a recent interview with TATAME TV (click here to check the complete piece), Nogueira said he will go for the knockout at any cost against Gustafsoon, and the Sweden was glad to hear it

“I hope he goes for it otherwise I'll knock him out (laughs)! I'm ready to box! I have a gameplan for him”, shoot Alex, who was not excited about Nogueira VS. Tito Ortiz. “It wasn't a good fight, Tito gave him the fight”.

Doubtful about Jones VS. Rashad

Gustafsson showed he does not like making many plans for the future. When asked about a possibility of fighting for the title in case he beats Nogueira, he tried to dodge from the question. “Don’t know. My only focus is this fight”. And what about the champion of the division, Jon Jones? “He’s the champ”, simplified. About the duel between Jones and Rashad Evans, which might happen at UFC 145, he again wouldn’t give us his thoughts: “That will be a good fight, the guy with the best game plan will win”.