If Gegard Mousasi seemed slow and deliberate in his unanimous decision victory over Ilir Latifi in Saturday's UFC on Fuel 9 main event, he had a good reason.

The former Strikeforce and Dream champion revealed following the event that he suffered a knee injury during his training camp, which will require surgery.

Mousasi, who improved to 34-3-2 on his career, didn't want to get into the specifics of the injury, but elaborated as best as he could at the post-fight press conference.

"I don't want to talk a lot about my injury, but I can tell that this injury, I'm pretty sure 95 percent wouldn't fight, from other fighters. You know, I stepped up, I didn't cancel the show, you know, I don't know, we go from here, you know.

Asked how long he'd be out of action, Mousasi said "I don't want to say anything yet, but it's nothing small."

UFC president Dana White, for his part, praised Mousasi's efforts this week, as he came to Sweden to fight Alexander Gustafsson in Gustafsson's homeland, then accepted the fight with Latifi after Gustafsson had to withdraw due to a cut suffered in training.

"Mousasi could make it to this fight, and then have surgery after the fight, the kid comes here because he wants to fight the No. 3 ranked light heavyweight in the world," White said."He doesn't want to give up this opportunity, he wants to fight. Shows up here to fight him, [Gustafsson] gets stopped on a cut ... then we throw this guy who was training for a tall striker, ends up fighting a short, strong, southpaw wrestler and still accepts the fight and takes it."

"Much respect to the guys in the main event," White added.