Mike Winkeljohn: Jon Jones 'Didn't Train Hard' For First Gustafsson Fight

At UFC 165 in September 2013, Ultimate Fighting Championship light heavyweights Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson put on one of the greatest wars ever inside the Octagon. That night, “Bones” won via unanimous decision and notched his sixth title defense to surpass the record set by Tito Ortiz.

Fast-forward just over five years and the pair are scheduled to meet once again at UFC 232 for the vacant 205 pound title. While Gustafsson gave Jones arguably the toughest fight of his career that night, according to Jones’ striking coach Mike Winkeljohn, his star pupil was not as well-prepared as he could have been.

Winkeljohn was a recent guest on Ariel Helwani ‘s MMA Show and discussed Jones’ approach going into that fight, in which Jones believed he would beat Gustafsson despite not being in shape.

“Oh yeah, there’s no doubt about it,” Winkeljohn said. “You know what, Jon won the last fight [and] he definitely didn’t train hard for that fight. His mind was elsewhere, I think he took it a little light. Kinda real fascinating how stupid that was because Gustafsson can fight. He’s the real deal and definitely a different look for Jon with his height. This time we’re gonna try to make it a lot easier. I wasn’t doubting he’d beat him, but I knew we were gonna be in for a war. I’m always a believer in Jon Jones’ heart and ability to figure sh*t out and come out on top. I figured it was gonna be one of those rough ones and it was, there’s no doubt about it. It was just we had to find a way as a team to help him conserve his energy here and there because he wasn’t in quite the shape he should’ve been in, which played out huge throughout the fight.”