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By: Dan Moore, MMATorch UK Columnist
Early last year I wrote about the performance of European fighters who at that time were plying their trade in the big leagues of the UFC. Looking back into the archives, only two Europeans have ever been successful in their quest for a UFC Championship, Bas Rutten (Netherlands) and Andrei Arlovski (Belarus). That's your lot; however, it does rise to three fighters if you count Oleg Taktarov (Russia) winning the UFC 6 tournament back in 1995.
Despite being a continent consisting of 50 countries with a population of around 740 million, Europe has yet to truly latch onto the fastest growing sport in the world. Alexander Gustafsson (Sweden) has a chance to increase that haul in September, but almost everyone involved in the sport believes he'll fall short against reigning Champion Jon Jones.
For this four part special, I intend to run through the list of UK and European fighters currently on the UFC's pay roll. 18 months later and it's time to see who's new, who's progressed and who has gone backwards, thus earning them an unwanted release from the World's premier MMA organization.
HEAVYWEIGHT
Alistair Overeem (36-11-1) is coming off a very disappointing defeat to Antonio Silva at UFC 156 last February. After dominating the early stages, the Dutchman got overly confident and Silva finished him with an impressive array of strikes in the final round. Victory would have guaranteed Overeem a shot at heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez. Instead a fight with the dangerous Travis Browne awaits him later this month on the Fox Sports 1 debut event.
Another man hoping to bounce back from defeat is Dutchman Stefan Struve (26-6) after losing to Mark Hunt at UFC on FUEL 8 in March. Struve had knocked out Stipe Miocic in his last fight and another win would have probably earned him a fight against a top 5 contender. Now having almost recovered from a broken jaw, he’ll be looking to get back to winning ways before the end of 2013.
37 year old Austrian Nandor Guelmino (11-4-1) was fed to the wolves in his last Strikeforce fight against Josh Barnett and a decisive first round finish quickly followed. Like every other Strikeforce fighter though, he gets an opportunity in the UFC and that chance will come against Polish promotional newcomer, Daniel Omielanczuk (15-3-1, 1 NC). Both will be looking to make an immediate impact at UFC 165 next month, knowing that the loser stands a good chance of being released if they don’t entertain.
UFC 164 will see the debut of undefeated Ukrainian Nikita “The Al Capone” Krylov (14-0) who’s agreed to fight fellow newcomer Soa “The Hulk” Palelei (18-3) in Milwaukee. Krylov has reeled off fourteen first round finishes against largely sub-par opponents including former UFC heavyweight, Sean McCorkle. Palelei was originally scheduled to fight Stipe Miocic at UFC 161 before being replaced by Roy Nelson. This is certainly the better fight for him, and like Krylov himself, he’ll be confident of recording a first UFC win.
LIGHT-HEAVYWEIGHT
After an impressive string of victories, Alexander Gustafsson (15-1) gets his opportunity to dethrone Jon Jones as the UFC light-heavyweight champion. After a late withdrawal from his headline fight with Gegard Mousasi at UFC on FUEL 9 in April, he can count himself very lucky to be getting this opportunity. The general consensus is that this fight is most likely a year too early for the fan favorite from Sweden.
He would have been better served taking another couple of contender fights, but if you’re offered a title shot by the UFC, you take it. A solid performance against Mousasi would have reaffirmed his impressive credentials, but it wasn’t to be. Gustafsson picked apart Thiago Silva and Shogun Rua in his last two fights, but Jon Jones is on another level all on his own.
Iranian born Gegard Mousasi (34-3-2) grew up in the Netherlands and that’s why he makes this list. As mentioned above he was supposed to fight Gustafsson in Sweden, but ended up fighting late replacement Ilir Latifi (7-3, 1 NC), winning a sluggish unanimous decision. He has been very outspoken about facing Vitor Belfort next, but as yet, no new fight has been announced for him.
Jimi Manuwa (13-0) is one of the rare breed of undefeated fighters currently on the roster. Recent wins over the experienced Kyle Kingsbury and Frenchman Cyrille Diabate (19-9-1) didn’t test his all round game and he still hasn’t been in a fight that has gone to the third round. Manuwa hasn’t got another fight scheduled, but expect him to make another appearance on the Manchester card in late October.
Diabate himself hasn’t fought again since he tore his calf muscle in the first round of that loss to Manuwa. There was plenty of speculation on the night that he would retire, but no official announcement has been forthcoming. Another experienced fighter is Croatian Igor Pokrajac (25-10, 1 NC). The Zagreb born light-heavyweight has lost three straight, although his loss to Joey Beltran was overturned after the American tested positive for a banned substance.
Pokrajac recently lost an uninspiring match-up with Ryan Jimmo at UFC 161, and is probably close to getting cut if he loses again. Krzysztof Soszynski (26-12-1) hasn’t fought since Dec 2011, which happened to be a loss to the man I’ve just mentioned, Igor Pokrajac. Although the Pole hasn’t officially retired, he is another one unlikely to ever fight again in the UFC.
SUMMARY
His fans had high hopes of seeing Alistair Overeem win a UFC title after he decisively beat Brock Lesnar at UFC 141. However, difficulties staying within the rules and a big loss to Antonio Silva make a title reign very unlikely for the former Strikeforce champion. Right now, every other European heavyweight in the UFC is a million miles away from a title shot.
Phil De Fries, Oli Thompson and Rob Broughton have all been released this year after failing to impress the UFC. It is unlikely that any of them will ever come back unless they can put together a very impressive run with another organization.
Alexander Gustafsson is a man of immense talent. His problem is that he happens to fight in the same division as Jon Jones. A man who in years to come, will be remembered as one of the greatest of all time. Even if he does lose the title fight next month, Gustafsson is certainly young enough to bounce back. He's extremely talented, and under the tutelage of Eric Del Fierro at Alliance MMA, he will only get better.
As for the rest of the light-heavyweights; Gegard Mousasi is certainly a top 10 talent. I'm really looking forward to watching him fight again, this time preferably against someone credible. He stayed on the Sweden card, despite an injury, and did what he had to do. Nothing more, nothing less, but he's got a lot more to offer and is obviously one to watch closely.
Jimi Manuwa is very entertaining and he hits incredibly hard. However, his first real test will come against someone who can take him down at will. If he survives a test against someone like Ryan Bader, I will begin to believe he's got the potential to go a long way. My hunch is that, at 32 years old, he won't have enough time to put together an all-round game capable of beating the elite.
Part two will cover the Middleweight and Welterweight divisions. Keep a look out for it later this week.
Follow me on Twitter, @MMATorchDan
[Alistair Overeem art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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