After it was learned over the weekend that the UFC may be in need of a replacement for Saturday’s headliner due to an injury to Alexander Gustafsson, Wanderlei Silva tweeted Monday afternoon that he was stepping in to take on Gegard Mousasi.
While the tweet created quite a bit of buzz from the MMA community, the keen observer was acutely aware of the date on the calendar.
Unfortunately, not everyone found the April Fool’s Day joke was funny. In particular, Mousasi himself had choice words for Silva on Tuesday morning in a post of his own on his Twitter account.
@wandfc @wandfc @arielhelwani IDIOOT OF THE YEAR 2013!!Good job JACKASS!!! twitter.com/mousasi_mma/st…
— Gegard Mousasi (@mousasi_mma) April 2, 2013
It’s not surprising that Mousasi wasn’t in a kidding mood considering he was having to deal with the uncertainty of who he’ll be fighting and whether his long-awaited UFC debut will still be on.
Silva wasn’t the only fighter who played trickster on Monday. Former UFC fighter John Alessio, who on a previous April 1st played a prank on his followers with a faux retirement tweet, posted the following on Monday, suggesting he was returning to the UFC to replace his teammate Ryan Couture in Saturday’s co-main event matchup against Ross Pearson.
He waited just over an hour before revealing the fib.
Then Tuesday Alessio, who is currently a lightweight and has not fought above 170 pounds, said he would step in to fight the 205-pound Mousasi. He insisted that he was serious this time.
Alessio, who has not appeared in the UFC since being released after falling to Shane Roller last July for his second straight loss, last fought in November against Dave Mazany in a bout that ended in a no contest due to an accidental poke in his eye.