Gus: Probably have to beat Jones to consider yourself the real champ

Alexander Gustafsson gets the next shot at UFC heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier. DC has said emphatically that his belt is the real one, as has UFC president Dana White. However, the Swede considers disgraced former champion Jon Jones the pound for pound best, and says to be the real champion, you have to beat him.

I haven’t looked into what Daniel has been saying, but I’m very glad that I’ve been given this opportunity, said Gustafsson to Peter Carroll for FightLand. I’m lucky that I get another chance. To be honest, I was surprised myself when they first told me that I would be fighting for the title. It’s sunk in now and it’s great. I’m going to make the best of it. I know I’m going to be motivated when it comes time to fight ‘DC’.

I think this is going to be a real fight, you know,. I’ve got to work on keeping my distance and using my footwork to my advantage. I know ‘DC’ is going to come in hard, throwing powerful punches and if the opportunity presents itself he will use his wrestling.

I think he’s very confident with his striking, he’s obviously a very high caliber athlete. He’s got a lot of belief in himself and I’m expecting him to trade with me a little bit, I certainly don’t think he’s going to be afraid to stand up with me or anything like that. I kind of feel the same about his wrestling.

Wrestling is all about taking you opportunities when different situations unfold. If I find myself in the right situation against Cormier, I’ll use my wrestling too. We’ll have to see what happens, this is an MMA fight and anything can happen.

I’m training hard, I’m already in camp and it’s 13 weeks out from the fight. I’m working my ass off now, so when the time comes to fight DC I’m going to show that I’ve turned every stone I possibly can to be the best that I can be. Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and that loss (to Johnson) was hard for my career, but I’m going to make sure that it never happens again.

The fight that everybody wants to see is a rematch with me and Jones. Let’s see what happens but I’m ready for that, it’s the fight that has been motivating me. I think it’s a fight that is going to happen one day, for sure.”

Whoever is holding the belt is the official champion, but everybody knows that the best guy out there is Jon Jones. He’s the pound for pound best guy in the world and you can probably only consider yourself a real world champion if you beat him.