Top light heavyweight contender Volkan Oezdemir plans to knock out Alexander Gustafsson in the first round.
Although surging UFC light heavyweight contender Volkan Oezdemir hasn’t been given his next opponent, the Swiss-born fighter wants to fight Alexander Gustafsson in a number one contender’s bout.
Oezdemir, 27, made a name for himself when he knocked out the heavy handed Jimi Manuwa at UFC 217, crumpling the Brit with a left hand just 42 seconds into the opening round.
It’s his second consecutive first-round knock out, and the former kickboxer wants to KO an even bigger opponent in his next fight.
“I think a fight with ‘DC’ or a fight with Gustafsson are most likely next, but I think the best option for me is to fight Gustafsson,” he told Peter Carroll of MMAFighting in a recent interview.
Gustafsson, 30, looked phenomenal in his last bout against Glover Teixeira, finishing the Brazilian with a barrage of punches in the fifth round.
Gustafsson looks to have recovered from his devastating first-round knockout loss to the now-retired Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson, but Oezdemir plans to finish ‘The Mauler’ in similar fashion.
“I haven’t seen the (Glover Teixeira) fight yet because I was in the locker room talking to my family and stuff,” Oezdemir said. “I didn’t really take the time to really watch the fight. I did see the finish.
“I see my fight with Gustafsson ending the same way his fight did with (Anthony Johnson). This is exactly what’s going to happen to him. He would not leave the first round, definitely not.”
Oezdemir hopes to fight Gustafsson, a two-time title challenger, in Europe.
“Of course, I would also like to fight ‘DC’, but Gustafsson is a very famous in Europe. Maybe I could fight him in Sweden because that’s only an hour’s flight away from me,” he said.
“There are a lot of fans over there and I would bring many with me, maybe it could open up the French market because we know the sport is still illegal there.”
Oezdemir, who made his UFC debut earlier this year, is on a five-fight win streak and is currently ranked as the No. 3 light heavyweight in the world.
