Antonio Rogerio Nogueira draws Alexander Gustafsson in April

A few days ago seasoned 205er Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (20-5) revealed he expected to have his next opponent lined up in less than a week and, as it turns out, the popular Brazilian was true to his word. Earlier today the UFC announced Nogueira would square off against Alexander Gustafsson in the main event at UFC on Fuel 2, a show being held in Gustafsson’s hometown of Stockholm, Sweden where the 24-year old will serve as a headliner for the first time in his career.

While Nogueira will clearly be in hostile territory when the two tangle it’s unlikely to phase “Minotoro” who made his professional debut when Gustafsson was 14 and has been fighting at a high level ever since. The 35-year old Nogueira is coming off a first frame finish of Tito Ortiz at UFC 140 and also holds past wins over Alistair Overeem (twice) and Dan Henderson.

Gustafsson seems to be on a similar path towards stardom as current title-holder Jon Jones, racking up a series of wins over veteran opponents like Matt Hamill and most recently Vladimir Matyushenko. “The Mauler” holds an overall record of 13-1 with twelve stoppages to his credit.

UFC on Fuel 2 will take place on April 14 and also features bouts like DaMarques Johnson vs. John Maguire, Siyar Bahadurzada vs. Paulo Thiago, and Alessio Sakara vs. Brian Stann.

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

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MMATraining Take: The UFC hit a homerun with his pairing in terms of being a competitive, divisionally relevant clash that fans will want to see and which will result in an animated crowd for the UFC’s Swedish debut.