Gus — “I wasn’t there, Johnson had me in deep water”

Alexander Gustafsson was stopped last night for the first time in his MMA career when Anthony Johnson landed an overhand right, and continued to pour on the strikes until the referee was forced to stop the bout.

The loss was a tough one for Gustafsson to swallow, making it even more difficult was that the bout went down in front of his native Swedish crowd in Stockholm.

Gustafsson spoke about the loss on the UFC Post-Fight Show.

“It doesn’t feel good at all. It’s very tough. He put a lot of pressure on me, but I thought I had everything under control. He threw a good counter and he caught me.”

The stoppage was a controversial one, with many thinking the ref allowed it to go on for too long after Gustafsson went down. ‘The Mauler’ confirmed he was in fact in deep waters when the ref stopped the bout.

“I wasn’t there. I felt like I was in deep water.”

Gustafsson concluded with his plan for what he will do next.

“I’ll take a few days off to recover and then get back in the gym and learn from my mistakes.”