Alexander Gustafsson explains origins of famous hospital photo with Jon Jones

UFC light heavyweight Alexander Gustafsson recently explained how his famous hospital photo with Jon Jones after UFC 165 came to be.

Jones and Gustafsson fought tooth-and-nail in an absolute classic in the main event of UFC 165. At the time Jones was running through everyone in his path and few believed Gustafsson would be able to give the champ a run for his money. But Gustafsson took Jones to deep waters and came closer to beating him than anyone else at that time, ultimately losing a unanimous decision in the best fight of 2013.

The Jones vs. Gustafsson fight was recently inducted into the fight wing of the UFC Hall of Fame and will go down in history as one of the greatest MMA fights of all time. Besides the fight itself, what was memorable from the battle was the iconic photo of Jones and Gustafsson posing in the hospital following the bout, a true show of respect between the two light heavyweight titans.

Speaking to MMAjunkie.com, Gustafsson explained the origins of one of the greatest MMA pictures ever taken.

“I was pretty much walking around there, waiting to get out of there – from the hospital. I think my buddy saw Jon laying on the bed. I was in another room and my friend said, ‘Ah, Jon is over there.’ I looked out and saw him lying there. I went up to him and showed him some respect. We were talking about the fight and my friend asked to take the picture. Then we took the picture,” Gustafsson said.

“If I remember correctly, I think it was more like he gave me some credit for the fight. We also talked about how good the fight was. It went up and down the whole fight. We talked about those details and stuff like that.”

Gustafsson and Jones ended up fighting in a rematch in 2018, with Jones demolishing his rival to settle the score once and for all good. Gustafsson lost to Anthony Smith his next fight after that and retired from the sport, but is said to be considering a return to the Octagon in 2020.

Do you think Alexander Gustafsson should come out of retirement and fight again?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 4/6/2020.