This Day in MMA History: May 28

Ben DuffyMay 28, 2020


The Ultimate Fighting Championship landed in Sweden for the fifth time on May 28, 2017, with a card unsurprisingly headlined by its biggest native star, Alexander Gustafsson. “The Mauler” was booked against perennial contender Glover Teixeira in a bout whose implications were wide open for speculation, as Jon Jones had returned from his most recent suspension the previous year and looked good—but not great—against Ovince St. Preux, and the UFC had been trying since then unsuccessfully to make a Jones-Daniel Cormier title rematch happen.

The Gustafsson-Teixeira fight was a one-sided thrashing, one of the best performances of the Swede’s career, as he won the first four rounds with ease before dispatching the bruised and battered Teixeira in the fifth. From there, Gustafsson went on to rematch Jones for the vacant light heavyweight belt at UFC 232 the following year, but fared worse than in his first attempt, as “Bones” knocked him out in the second round.

Teixeira, meanwhile, has experienced a late career renaissance, going 5-1 since their meeting and placing himself on the cusp of title contention yet again at age 40. In his most recent outing, a grueling beatdown of Anthony Smith at UFC Fight Night 171 earlier this month, Teixeira also became the answer to a trivia question, as the only UFC fighter to both win and lose a fight via fifth-round stoppage.