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Alexander Gustafsson issues warning to Luke Rockhold: ‘Beware’ of moving up to 205

Alexander Gustafsson thinks Luke Rockhold would be making a very big mistake if he moved up in weight.

The perennial UFC light heavyweight contender wrote Tuesday on Instagram that Rockhold should “beware” the 205-pound division and cited Rockhold’s knockout loss to Yoel Romero at UFC 221 last Saturday as evidence.

“If u [sic] think Romero hits hard, then wait till you come to the big boys,” Gustafsson wrote.

Rockhold has spoken an awful lot about moving up from middleweight to light heavyweight in the last year, especially with Daniel Cormier, his longtime teammate, close to retirement. Cormier, the UFC light heavyweight champion, is moving up to heavyweight for a superfight with champion Stipe Miocic at UFC 226 on July 7 in Las Vegas.

With Cormier temporarily out of the division, Rockhold, a large middleweight, said that could open up the door for him. And Gustafsson seemingly would love to be a part of the welcoming party. Gustafsson wrote that Cormier is holding up the division and he’d love to use Rockhold to “keep me warm in the meantime.”

“Beware of coming up in weight because I will be standing at the front door waiting,” Gustafsson said.

Gustafsson (18-4) has won two straight and is on the verge of getting another title shot. He most recently defeated Glover Teixeira by fifth-round knockout at UFC Stockholm last May. “The Mauler” has lost to Cormier already and fallen in his other title shot against Jones. But he has not been pleased with Cormier moonlighting as a heavyweight when he could be defending the belt.

This article first appeared at MMA Fighting – All Posts

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