I’ll be honest and upfront about this; I’m not a Jon Jones fan at all. I think that Jones is a bit too outspoken and arrogant about his skills and that there are some holes in his game, just that no one has been able to act on them. With that being said, it was hard to believe that Alexander Gustafsson would give Jones the fight of his life at UFC 165 tonight, but that is exactly what happened. Gustafsson did exactly what you need to do against Jones, which is to apply pressure and hit him while he’s backing up, which worked absolute wonders for Gustafsson.
It was a very close fight, where you can easily argue that Gustafsson won rounds 1 and 3, with round 2 as an incredibly close round which could have gone to either guy. In cases like that, judges tend to defer to the champion. Round four saw Gustafsson firmly in charge and landing way better strikes until Jones finally landed a shot that connected and swarmed Gustafsson, almost putting him down! Round five saw a lot of great action, but Jones scored a takedown then a few good shots which won him the round.
It is hard to do that fight justice, you’ll just have to watch it for yourself because it was an amazing bout.