UFC books Alexander Gustafsson – Nikita Kyrlov

The UFC announced today that they are returning to London in July and we already know one of the fights that will be on the main card. Frontkick Online was the first to report yesterday that Alexander Gustafsson (18-7) is returning to light heavyweight to face Nikita Krylov (29-7).

The fight will take place on July 23rd and as mentioned, it will go down in London. When Krylov makes the walk at the second UFC London show of the year, he’s going to be looking to snap the current funk he’s been in.

Krylov has lost two straight leading up to this fight with Gustafsson. He had a four-fight winning streaking that went to 2018 and led him to a fight with former light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz.

Starting with the fight against Blachowicz, Krylov has gone just 2-4 in his last six UFC fights. Now, he did look good against Paul Craig back at the first UFC London show. However, Craig did what Craig does and he caught Krylov in a triangle choke in the first round handing him his second straight loss.

Gustafsson’s UFC Return

For years, Alexander Gustafsson was one of the best light heavyweights in the world. However, the problem he ran into is the fact that he was competing at the same time as the two greatest light heavyweights arguably of all time in Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier.

Gustafsson got three cracks at UFC gold and came up short all three times against the two men. He retired briefly after a 2019 loss to Anthony Smith before opting to return at heavyweight where he lost to Fabricio Werdum on Fight Island.

That fight took place in 2020 and we haven’t seen him since. He was supposed to compete against Ben Rothwell at heavyweight, but Rothwell was released by the UFC and Gustafsson was rebooked. Ultimately, he decided to take this fight and return to light heavyweight.

Krylov is currently ranked 11th in the UFC’s light heavyweight rankings. If Gustafsson can win when they fight in London, I would expect him to vault back into the rankings. Another couple of wins after that and The Mauler will be back in title contention.