Paul Craig vs. Alexander Gustafsson teed up for September UFC event

A potential light heavyweight barnburner is on the UFC’s fall slate.

Paul Craig (15-4-1 MMA, 7-4-1 UFC) is set to take on former title challenger Alexander Gustafsson (18-7 MMA, 10-7 UFC) at a UFC event set for Sept. 4. MMA Junkie confirmed the booking with a person close to the matchup following an initial report from Front Kick. The person requested anonymity because the UFC has not yet made a formal announcement of the matchup.

The UFC’s Sept. 4 event does not yet have a publicly announced venue or location, but published reports have linked the show to London.

Craig is coming off a brutal “Performance of the Night” TKO finish of Jamahal Hill at UFC 263 just 10 days ago in which he dislocated Hill’s arm in one of the nastiest finishes in recent memory. That ran the Scot’s current unbeaten run to five fights. He’s 4-0-1 in that stretch with four finishes – three for bonuses – and a split draw with Maurio Rua in Novemmber 2019.

Prior to Craig’s current standout stretch, he was a very pedestrian 3-4 in his first seven fights in the promotion after starting his career 9-0 with nine finishes. Overall, Craig has 12 submissions in his 15 wins, and the other three are TKOs.

Gustafsson will be in fairly dire need of a win. After a win over current light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz in September 2016 and a knockout of upcoming title challenger Glover Teixeira in May 2017, Gustafsson got a second crack at Jon Jones in a vacant 205-pound title fight. But he lost that fight in at UFC 232 with a third-round TKO.

In June 2019, Gustafsson was submitted by Anthony Smith. He retired after the fight, but returned in July 2020 he was tapped in the first round by Fabricio Werdum in a move to heavyweight, giving him three straight losses. Gustafsson also has fought just once per year from 2016-2020, and the fight with Craig is his first scheduled bout of 2021.