5 Things You Might Not Know About Alexander Gustafsson

UFC 232 is now available on Amazon Prime.

Alexander Gustafsson (18-4) is a Swedish mixed martial arts competitor and contender in the Ultimate Fighting Championship light heavyweight division. In his next outing, “The Mauler” will clash with Jon Jones for the promotion’s vacant light-heavyweight belt in the main event at UFC 232 on Dec. 29. The bout is a rematch of their September 2013 UFC 165 encounter, which saw Jones emerge victorious from the closely-contested affair by unanimous decision.

As we approach the title fight, here are five things that you might not know about Sweden’s most famous MMA export:

He trains mostly in his home country.

Gustafsson is a member of the Allstars Training Center in the Swedish capital, Stockholm. The gym is widely regarded as one of Europe’s finest. Amongst its talented pool of fighters are fellow UFC light-heavyweights Ilir Latifi and Jimi Manuwa. Gustafsson has also sought tuition stateside at Alliance MMA in San Diego. Initially he went out there in 2010, with the specific aim of improving his wrestling. Today, he continues to train there on occasion, but the majority of his time is spent with Allstars.

He started out in boxing.

Long before Gustafsson was interested in MMA, boxing was his sport of choice. He started training in the discipline at around the age of 10. His accolades in boxing include being the 2003 Swedish youth-junior level national champion. By his mid-teens, “The Mauler” had drifted away from the sport. Back in 2008, Gustafsson had already commenced his professional MMA career when he returned to the boxing ring to win several amateur tournaments and to defeat the then-Swedish heavyweight boxing champion. It is likely that he would have continued to pursue boxing alongside MMA had he not been signed by the UFC in September 2009.

He was a troubled teenager.

In his teens, Gustafsson reportedly got into fights frequently. This trait allegedly led to him getting into trouble with the law. His first conviction came at the age of 15. In 2005, matters escalated when the then 18-year-old was reportedly sent to prison for grievous bodily harm. On his release 15 months later, the young Swede set about improving his life. The focused Gustafsson returned to the boxing gym, soon found mixed martial arts, and avoided getting into trouble on the streets. Today, he credits MMA for altering the course of his life. He said in an interview of his time inside, “I was young and stupid … The time in prison? It was hard.”

He favours striking.

Gustafsson is a complete mixed martial artist who is adept at striking and grappling. However, his preference is for the former. Of his 18 wins to date, 11 (61 percent) have been delivered by KO/TKO. Amongst the list of illustrious victims, he has disposed of with strikes, are Glover Teixeira and Jimi Manuwa. Back in 2007-2008, Gustafsson won four fights in succession via TKO, three of them inside the first round. Considering the rangy pugilist’s preference for slugging it out on the feet, his moniker “The Mauler” is a good fit.

He is a country boy at heart.

Today, Gustafsson spends much of his time in the metropolis that is his nation’s capital. However, Sweden’s No. 1 mixed martial artist hails from Arboga, a small, provincial town an hour and a half’s drive from Stockholm. There he spent his formative years with his mother, step-father and four younger sisters. Gustafsson has confessed in interviews that he is not a fan of the city, and only stays in Stockholm because it is home to the Allstars Training Center.

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