Alexander Gustafsson's height and reach was supposed to bring him greatness. Jon Jones's freakishly athletic ability and natural talent was supposed to make him the greatest champion the sport has ever seen. The two met tonight (Sat., Sept. 21, 2013) at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in the main event of UFC 165 with the light heavyweight title -- and for "Bones" a couple records -- on the line.
The second opened with pure excitement, as Gustafsson caught a leg kick and snap kicked Jones leg out from under him. The crowd popped huge for it, and "Bones" responded by getting up and running the Swede down to try to get a takedown.
But he couldn't get there.
They went back to exchanging offense with neither getting the clear edge. The offense that Jones has found so much success with in the past wasn't working this time around, though a front kick did hit to the face about halfway home.
Heavy counter shots were just missing.
Gustafsson caught another leg kick but this time couldn't knock Jones down with it. The champion tried to roll through but missed on a submission attempt and couldn't shoot a single or a double leg takedown on the way back up.
That's not something that's ever happened to him before.
The round came to an end and Jones raised his hands to the crowd, perhaps signaling he was okay. It sure didn't look that way, though.
For more on "Jones vs. Gustafsson" click here, and for complete UFC 165 results and blow-by-blow coverage of all the night's action click here.
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