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By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch contributor
The big news this week is that Alexander Gustafsson suffered an eyebrow cut during training and is likely out of his UFC on Fuel 9 fight with Gegard Mousasi. I personally think that Gustafsson should be allowed to fight if he wants to. He's a grown man and it's his responsibility to decide if the risk is worth it. If he wants to go out there with a big gash across his eyebrow that starts bleeding the second someone breathes on it, he should be allowed to do so. It's not like he's in mortal danger or anything, it's just a cut.
Gustafsson would be taking a huge chance by still fighting, but if he wants to do it, so be it. UFC on Fuel 9 takes place in Sweden and I'm sure Gustafsson would love to fight in his home country. Gustafsson vs. Mousasi is also the main event so I'm sure the UFC would love to see Gustafsson give it a go and try to fight. I hope he's allowed to as this fight could potentially vault the winner to a title shot, depending on how good he looks.
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There's a lot of talk about Anderson Silva fighting Jon Jones later this year at the UFC's 20th anniversary show. A lot of people are saying that this fight should take place at Madison Square Garden, pending the legalization of MMA in New York. I've never been to MSG, but friends of mine have and they've always called it a dump. They've somewhat recently done renovations and my friends say that it's a big improvement, but still nowhere matching the effusive praise that the arena gets.
MSG is called The World's Most Famous Arena, but that's just a nickname. If you say something enough times people will believe it and repeat it back to you. I don't think that MSG is the best place to have the UFC's 20th anniversary show, and I certainly don't think that it's the best place to have Silva vs. Jones. I think Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas would be a much better choice because of it's immense size. Silva vs. Jones is a fight between possibly the two best fighters of all time, and it needs a venue befitting of such magnitude.
The UFC could get 90,000+ into Cowboys Stadium to watch this card. All they'd have to do is stack the card with some other highly-desired fights, like Georges St-Pierre vs. Johny Hendricks and Ronda Rousey vs. whomever the #1 contender is at the time. We know the UFC is going to stack the card anyway because of it being their 20-year anniversary. Can you imagine the atmosphere? It would be electric to watch, and a card befitting the stadium and the event. If there's ever going to be an MMA event that's a challenger to the buyrate of UFC 100, it's the card headlined by Anderson Silva vs. Jon Jones.
I understand that the UFC being in Madison Square Garden is history, but is it really that big of a deal? How many events are run in MSG every year? The first time the UFC runs a show in MSG will be a big deal regardless of the card. Silva vs. Jones is a once in a generation type of fight. You have the legitimate two best fighters in the world fighting each other. It's not some fight propped up by some phony trash talk. Their fighting styles also makes this fight even more appealing. It would be impossible to come up with a better, more appealing scenario to run an event in Cowboys Stadium.
Comments and suggestions can be emailed to me at hydenfrank@gmail.com
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