Like all close fights, the decision in UFC 165‘s title bout between Jon Jones and challenger Alexander Gustafsson created a stir among fans on the Internet. Though the bulk of the media and all three judges scored the fight for Jones, some felt that the challenger deserved the title.
It’s hard, of course, to process a fight totally while it is happening. In a fight like this one—where a huge underdog is fighting the favorite closely—there is a tendency to inflate what he’s doing simply because he’s defying expectations.
In other words, Gustafsson—just by staying in the fight for five rounds—felt like a winner.
But was he?
I watched the fight again in the light of day, with all the emotion and excitement of the live experience muted, to see how I would score the bout. In addition to my own judgment, I’ve included statistical analysis from FightMetric, the official statistics partner of the UFC.
Who really won the fight everyone is buzzing about?
Let’s explore round by round and find out.