Jon Jones fought a who’s who of nice fighters throughout his illustrious profession – however one proved to be harder than the remainder.
The American sensation spent a file 1,743 days because the UFC’s No.1 pound-for-pound fighter and gained world titles at each gentle heavyweight and heavyweight.
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Alongside the way in which, he defeated a number of future and present Corridor of Famers, together with Daniel Cormier, Lyoto Machida, Rashad Evans and Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson.
The only blemish on Jones’ in any other case exemplary 28-1 file got here through a controversial disqualification loss to Matt Hamill in 2009.
4 years on from that closely disputed struggle, Sweden’s Alexander Gustafsson virtually grew to become the second man to beat Jones when he pushed him all the way in which to the ultimate bell at UFC 165.
Following a quick begin from Gustafsson, Jones began to get into his groove as each males went to conflict for 5 blood-soaked rounds.
In the course of the chaos, ‘The Mauler’ grew to become the primary man to take down Jones when he landed a single leg within the opening stanza.
Ultimately, Jones obtained his hand raised through unanimous resolution, though two of the scorecards separated the pair by a single spherical.
Greater than a decade on from their barnburning bout, Jones paid the final word praise to his former foe by hailing him as his finest ever opponent.
“My finest opponent must have been Alexander Gustafsson. He was my finest opponent,” he stated when the query was posed to him throughout a fan Q&A in Thailand final month.
“He was my finest opponent. He actually pushed me.
“He was the one man to take me down within the UFC, and man, he reduce me open and made me dig actually onerous.”
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In 2018, Jones and Gustafsson rematched for the vacant gentle heavyweight crown at UFC 232.
It proved to be a totally totally different struggle the second time round, with Jones dominating the Swede en path to a third-round knockout win.
With that, Gustafsson had failed at profitable the 205lbs belt for a 3rd time, and he would by no means get the chance to struggle for it once more.
Within the years that adopted, he suffered defeats by the hands of Anthony Smith and Fabricio Werdum earlier than Nkyita Krylov made it 4 losses on bounce by flattening Gustafsson within the first spherical.
The devastating defeat marked his closing struggle with the UFC.
And whereas he signed with the GFL in 2024, the now-defunct promotion by no means obtained off the bottom.
At 38-years-old, it’s unlikely he’ll ever compete at an elite degree in MMA once more.
Nevertheless, he’ll all the time be remembered as the person who almost beat Jones.