Alexander Gustafsson leaves Alliance: I’m coming home

UFC light heavyweight contender, Alexander Gustafsson (15-2 MMA, 7-2 UFC), has shown tremendous improvement ever since he started training at Eric Del Fierro’s Alliance MMA.

In 2010, Gustafsson suffered the first loss of his MMA career, after being out-wrestled at UFC 112 by Phil Davis.

Determined to improve his wrestling, “The Mauler” headed West, all the way to Alliance Gym in San Diego, CA, to train with “Mr. Wonderful” and the rest of Fierro’s team.

The move proved to be a tremendous success, as the Swede won his next six octagon appearances, earning himself a shot at Jon Jones and the UFC’s light heavyweight title.

After giving Jones the fight of his life at UFC 165, Gus has surprisingly decided to move his camp back to his native Sweden, as he told Swedish language site aftonbladet.se in a recent interview:

“It’s time to come home,” said Gustafsson, via google translate. “Now, I’m in the stage of my career where I will compete three or four times a year so I cannot go off all the time. It costs too much and it takes too much time away from my family. It’s simply not worth it.”

“I might as well get used to having the whole training camps here in Sweden and create the routine here. Unlike before, now I am in a position that I can fly in the quality sparring partners I want.”

“It’s been hard (training away from home), it has,” said Gustafsson. “Hard training every day and then being away from their loved ones take its toll . But at the same time it has given me focus.”

“Davis and I do not train with each other as much anymore. We are both top fighters, and its not hard to guess that we’ll meet again soon. It’s not a dream match-up because we are friends, but the UFC could decide that we should fight, so it feels better to not train together right now.”