Alexander Gustafsson hasn’t forgotten about his back-and-forth title bout with Jon Jones back in Sept. 2013.
“The Mauler” fell short in his first bid for the UFC light heavyweight title at UFC 165. Gustafsson lost the fight by unanimous decision. Many feel Gustafsson pushed Jones to his limit and to this day, gave him his toughest challenge.
Since that bout, “The Mauler” has gone 1-2. He had a close split decision loss to Daniel Cormier in his second title bout. Before that match-up, he was finished by Anthony Johnson in the first round via TKO.
In his last outing, Gustafsson got back in the win column with a unanimous decision victory over Jan Blachowicz. He will throw leather with Glover Teixeira inside the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm, Sweden on May 28.
During a recent conference promoting the event, Gustafsson compared beating Jones to winning a UFC championship (via MMAJunkie.com):
“Jones is one of those fights I think everybody wants. It’s a hard choice because you have the belt, and you have Jones. Jones is a true champ in my eyes (because he never lost the belt in the octagon). There’s no one like him, and to beat him would be as big as being the world champ.”
