Alexander Gustafsson Suffered Groin Injury in Loss to Jon Jones at UFC 232
Alexander Gustafsson’s pride wasn’t the only thing that took a crippling hit last Saturday night.
The Swedish fighter revealed after the fight that he had suffered a lower body injury early on in his highly anticipated rematch against the returning Jon ‘Bones’ Jones. The pair met for the second time in the main-event of the UFC’s final PPV of the year, December 29th.
“I hurt my groin in there,” Gustafsson stated during the post-fight press conference after having been asked about a noticeable limp.
‘The Mauler’ underwent an MRI on New Year’s Eve to assess the extent of the injury, and according to a text message his agent Nina Wennerström sent to Swedish site Sportbladet, Gustafsson will need time to heal more than a damaged ego following his loss on Saturday night.
“There’s bleeding in his groin, although nothing is broken. He’ll need to rest for a couple of weeks before being able to start [training] again,” Wennerstrom said in the message.
Jones landed a knee strike to the groin 40 seconds into the opening round and Gustafsson almost immediately waved off any extra time allowed to him due to the unintentional low blow, which in hindsight, may not have been in his best interest.
“He just made sure I couldn’t move anymore, that was it. He took me down, and I couldn’t get up, and that was it,” Gustafsson said about the end of the fight.
“He got me very very early in the first round, very early; and after that, I just shut down. I wasn’t tired, I had my conditioning. I felt good. We had our exchanges and everything but, he shut me down very early in the first round and I couldn’t move at all. I told my corner too. He did exactly what he’s supposed to do to make sure he won the fight. All credit to him.”
Jones dominated the Swedish fighter last Saturday in the main event of UFC 232 to capture the light heavyweight title for a third time after he was stripped twice previously. ‘Bones’ put an end to the fight at 2:02 in the third round, raining down elbow strikes on Gustafsson to score the victory by knockout.
What the future holds for Gustafsson is still in the air, but the fighter did mention that he would be open to moving up to heavyweight while also stating that he would not be opposed to continuing on at 205 pounds either.
