Gustafsson Trainer: ‘Gameplan Was To Stop Jon Jones’

“We were looking to stop Jones. That’s what we were always looking for. We in the camp knew what Alex has, what the rest of the world didn’t know he had. The kid can wrestle. He has the whole game, you know what I mean, and this was his first time up against someone like Jones, who is a monster himself. After the first round, and then into the second we knew Alex could stop Jon and we were trying to urge him to pressure forward, and not to respect any of the takedowns. He was stopping all of them. Jones wasn’t able to hold Alex down, even at the end, because he was so exhausted. We were really pleased when Alex took Jon down, because it made people realize that Alex is a monster himself. He’s so young, he’s going to be a beast, you know. We’ve known it about Alex for a while, he was going in there to win, and to take the belt for sure.”

Coach Eric Del Fierro explained to Telegraph Sports the mentality and strategy they put together for Alexander Gustafsson’s fight against Jon Jones.

While some camps air on the side of caution, ‘The Mauler’s’ team apparently wanted to take the champ out decisively instead of coast to a decision win.