Here’s a little bit of news we learned from UFC’s post-fight that we haven’t even discussed yet. Alexander Gustafsson was nearly crowned the new world champion after the 4th round, says Dana White. The ringside physician was prepared to stop the bout and award a technical knockout victory to Gustafsson due to the severe cut on Jon Jones’ eye.
The cut occurred in the 1st round and throughout the fight you could see the blood flowing, hampering Jones’ vision at times. According to White, Jones begged the doctor not to stop the fight. And so did referee John McCarthy. “Jones begged them not to stop the fight,” White said. From what I understand, McCarthy did too; pleaded them not to stop the fight.”
This is the second straight fight Jones narrowly escaped such a fate. Remember against Chael Sonnen, Jones’ toe was badly dislocated to a point that it would have certainly ended the fight with Sonnen.
In a way, this shows exactly difficult it is to continue winning for such long stretches. Something completely out of a fighter’s control could end everything. Bones has now successfully defended his title more times than anyone else in UFC history in his division. But we were very close to seeing a new champ walk out of the cage that night.
