Jon Jones is taking Alexander Gustafsson much more seriously in their rematch at UFC 232.
In their first fight at UFC 165, Jones picked up the win via close decision. He has since admitted to partying way too hard leading up to the fight. Regardless, Jones notched the win and defended the light heavyweight title yet again.
Leading up to their first fight Jones kept hearing how Gustafsson was a ‘Swedish version’ of himself. And although “Bones” beat Gus the first time he won’t treat the Swede like a knockoff version of himself.
“I was getting used to people saying things like, ‘He is a lot like Jon Jones with better hands and better footwork.’ Everybody was saying he was a Swedish version of me,” said Jones during a recent stop on UFC Unfiltered podcast.
“In my head, I was thinking he’s tall, has a presence about him, but he is not me. There is only one me, and it was almost an arrogance that I had. I was feeling like I was a product and he was a knockoff version of me.”
Lesson Learned
In every fight, win or lose, there’s a lesson to be learned. On that night Jones learned a valuable one:
“What he showed me was, hard work can beat talent when talent isn’t working hard. And that is such a true thing. I know I wasn’t doing the right things. I was in the heyday of my partying. Now I know what he is capable of and I will treat him as such. I will train for him like it is supposed to be,” he concluded.
While its true Jones has been away from the sport for some 16 months, Gustafsson has been sidelined for 18. That’s a baffling statistic in its own right.
We’ll see which fighter will be on top of his game on December 29.
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