As many people may have already heard, Swedish Light Heavyweight contender Alexander Gustafsson has earned the next title shot against champion Daniel Cormier. The former Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix champion defeated Anthony Johnson at UFC 187 for the vacant UFC Light Heavyweight belt, after longtime champion Jon Jones was suspended indefinitely and stripped of the belt after getting into an accident and leaving the scene of the crime.

Following Cormier’s victory, some harsh words were exchanged when he called out “Ultimate Fighter” winner, Ryan Bader (who just happened to be there), at the post-fight press conference. Bader tried to confront Cormier on the stage as both had to be held back (via MMAFighting):

The decision to give the title shot to “The Mauler” has caused a bit of a stir among the MMA community and fans, as well, since many people feel Gustafsson didn’t actually earn the shot, particularly because he lost to the aforementioned Anthony Johnson in resounding fashion earlier this year. Since the Johnson/Gustafsson fight was viewed as a title eliminator bout, many are scratching their heads at why Gustafsson gets the shot (after Johnson lost), and someone like Bader was left out of the picture for the time being.

So, let’s carefully take a detailed look at the history of both Alexander Gustafsson and Ryan Bader to see who deserves the title fight more.

“The Mauler” started off his pre-UFC MMA career winning his first eight fights, with only one bout going to a decision, one ending by submission and the rest by KO/TKO. The majority of those bouts took place in his home country of Sweden, as well as two in its bordering nation, Finland. After quickly winning his UFC debut against veteran Jared Hamman by KO in the first round, Gustafsson got submitted by Phil Davis at the very end of the first round. The Swede would bounce back from his defeat by going on an absolute tear in his next six UFC bouts. In that two-year span, he would beat the likes of talented veterans Cyrille Diabat�, Matt Hamill, and even dominating MMA legend, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, who was a champion in both PRIDE and the UFC.

So, it made sense to pit Gustafsson against the champion, Jon “Bones” Jones. Nobody really wanted to give “The Mauler” much of a chance, but to the amazement of 15,504 screaming fans, it ended up becoming one of the best title fights in UFC history. The amount of punishment delivered by both men on one another was incredible. Ultimately, to the surprise of some, Jones won the fight via Unanimous decision, albeit very close. The main takeaway fans got was that the champion, who had basically dominated every other opponent up until that point, was not only hurt several times in 25 grueling minutes, but he was taken to the limit by a fighter that many had possibly overlooked. Either way, that battle will definitely go down as one of the best ever. It was so impressive in the eyes of observers that it not only got awarded “Fight of the Night,” but also 2013 “Fight of the Year”.

Just over six months later, Gustafsson fought for another shot at Jones, as he disposed of hungry British striker, Jimi Manuwa, with an impressive second-round TKO. According to UFC President Dana White, this win earned “The Mauler” a rematch against “Bones” for the title. Unfortunately, after a period of stalling by the champion to sign the contract to fight, Gustafsson ended up tearing his meniscus and had to pull out, anyway, being replaced by Cormier. Eventually, after getting surgery on his knee, Gustafsson was ready to face Anthony Johnson in a title eliminator bout in his home country of Stockholm, Sweden. In a horrifying turn of events, however, the hometown boy was defeated in front of all his friends and family, as Johnson finished him in less than three minutes with a thunderous TKO victory. This was only the third defeat of Gustafsson’s career, and second non-title loss. So with all that, does Gustafsson really deserve a title shot?

Ryan “Darth” Bader started his MMA career very similarly to Gustafsson, winning his first seven fights, with only one going to decision, and getting three wins each by submission and KO/TKO. After competing on Season 8 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” Bader won his UFC debut by impressively defeating Vinny Magalh�es via TKO in the TUF finale, getting him the coveted UFC contract. He followed that win with four more, beating the likes of longtime veterans Keith Jardine (via KO) and Ant�nio Rog�rio Nogueira (AKA “Lil’ Nog”), who was a former PRIDE contender. As things were looking up for Mr. Bader, he went on to suffer crucial back-to-back losses at the hands of eventual pound-for-pound champion, Jon Jones, and eventual UFC Hall of Famer, Tito Ortiz. They would both finish Bader by guillotine choke, with the latter doing so in less than two minutes.

After an impressive KO win over Jason Brilz, and beating former UFC champion and PRIDE Grand Prix runner-up, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Bader lost a big fight to former UFC Light Heavyweight champion, Lyoto Machida. The Karate/MMA fighter knocked Bader out cold in the second-round. After that loss, Bader got back on track with a lightning quick submission win over beloved MMA veteran, Vladamir Matyushenko, but would come up short once again. He fought hard-hitting Brazilian striker, Glover Teixeira, and was put away in less than three minutes. A win in that fight might have gotten Bader the title shot, seeing as how Teixeira was given the opportunity in his very next fight. Now, after a long, bumpy and inconsistent UFC career, Bader has won his last four fights once again, all by Unanimous decision, with the last one against Phil Davis being a split decision victory. Does “Darth,” even with his inability to keep a consistent streak of wins going against big name fighters, deserve a shot at the Light Heavyweight title?

The one thing to remember is that the quality of wins/losses is important when deciding who should get a shot at the title. Furthermore, consider these facts: Jon Jones was the champion who never lost. Cormier and Gustafsson were his best challenges and near defeats. Jones finished Bader. And Bader hasn’t beaten a top contender impressively and, if anything, has lost against them. Gustafsson is also a fighter with many more impressive accolades than Bader in his fighting career. He has more performance bonuses awarded to him by the UFC, including being awarded “Fight of the Year” by at least nine different MMA outlets (for his bout with Jones), and was also put on the cover for the UFC’s EA Sports video game, beating out Jon Jones by a competitive fan vote after their epic fight. Compare being recognized for all that to Bader, who’s main accolades in his MMA career are winning “The Ultimate Fighter” and being awarded “Submission of the Night” one time. Also, proving his non-entertaining wrestling style, 8 of his 11 wins in the UFC have been by Decision and all of his losses have been by KO/TKO or submission.

So exactly how does Bader/Cormier make for a better fight? It doesn’t make sense to me.