Fight Night Flashback: Alexander Gustafsson and Daniel Cormier

Fight Night Flashback punches the DeLorean to 88 MPH to showcase the past bouts of fighters on upcoming UFC cards. This week, we look back at Alexander Gustafsson and Daniel Cormier who square off for the UFC light heavyweight title at UFC 192 on Saturday night.

Alexander Gustafsson

It was the year 2009.

The Sears Tower in Chicago was rechristened the Willis Tower, an enraged Cloverfield monster terrorized New York City, Swine flu ravaged digestive systems across the globe, and a fresh-faced Alexander Gustafsson made his UFC debut.

"The Mauler" needed a mere 41 seconds to dispatch Jared Hamman, flooring "The Messenger" with a picture-perfect straight right hand before finishing it with a few vicious coffin nails on the floor.

After dropping his next bout to Phil Davis, Gustafsson racked up six wins in a row, earning a light heavyweight title-fight against pound-for-pound great Jon Jones.

Gustafsson would ultimately lose his bid for the title in one of the greatest 205-pound title bouts in UFC history.

Daniel Cormier

Daniel Cormier had been fighting professionally a little under a year when he faced Tony Johnson for the King of The Cage heavyweight title in 2010.

Avoiding Johnson's wild advances, Cormier eventually used his vaunted wrestling game to ground the heavier KOTC champion, sinking in a fight-ending rear-naked choke at 2:27 of the opening stanza.

After a failed bid to wrest the UFC light heavyweight championship from Jon Jones in the opening stages of 2015, Cormier finally captured vacant UFC gold against Anthony Jonson at UFC 187 in May.