It is hard to picture nowadays with belts switching hands every other event but there was once a time in which title matches were pretty much showcases of just how invincible these champions were, and UFC 163 was definitely a showcase of invincibility.

Jon “Bones” Jones is one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time, if anything is up for discussion is whether he is THE greatest MMA fighter of all time. Coming into UFC 163 Jon Jones was on a tear, he had already defended his title five times and had little trouble doing so. Having only lost once due to a disqualification Jones was at the top of the world, and if it looked like someone would beat him, it was not Alexander Gustafsson.

Alexander “The Mauler” Gustafsson is either a super model or a viking born in the wrong age. The Swedish boxer had earned his shot at the title via a win over the declining Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, and had not looked too good while doing it either. Rua was the only big name on Gustafsson’s record and it was the man who Jones had taken the belt from with little opposition, so the Swede looked doomed on this matchup.

But if one lesson should be learned in this sport is that you should never count a fighter out. After all, from the time of this fight to the writing of this article all but one of the UFCs belts has changed hands, some more than once.

As the fight started Jones did what he does, oblique kicks and stiff arming Gustafsson to keep him at a distance. Jones’ range is his biggest asset, with a wingspan of over seven feet he can plant his hand on his opponent’s forehead and watch them helplessly try to get at him while laughing, just like a middle school bully, only in front of a live arena and a TV audience.

However Gustafsson is very close in reach to Jones so he showed the ability to close the range on the champion, often inciting a striking exchange between the two, and doing quite well in doing so.

Then as the fighters tentatively measured each other out a glancing blow from Gustafsson opened a cut above Jones’ eye and it began to bleed profusely.

But that wasn’t really what put the status of Jon Jones in question, but rather that Gustafsson parried one of Jones’ kicks and for the first time Jon Jones was taken down.

Gustafsson, the boxer, took down the wrestler with the perfect takedown defense.

It was shocking, especially since the commentators were just done praising his takedown defense. The crowd went mad, and even madder was Jon Jones who immediately became more aggressive.

The first round was done and it had already painted a different picture than any Jon Jones fight, for once he was having trouble. And as the second started this was driven home even further as Gustafsson caught one of Jones’ kicks and dropped him again.

Jones’ was obviously livid about this running after Gustafsson trying to take him down but failing to do so. And it didn’t take too long for Jones to try again, and still fail. Gustafsson was succeeding on his takedowns and Jones was barely even making Gustafsson wobble.

Jon Jones works best when he can keep pressure on his opponents, he holds them at a distance with his arms stretched forward (and of course, fingers splayed to threaten his infamous eye pokes), jam their advances with leg kicks and then hold them against the fence and elbow them into shreds or take them down and then elbow them into shreds. Gustafsson was capable of slipping away from his pressure, closing in or angling on Jones’ range and stuffing his takedowns.

But like I said the main weapon Gustafsson’s repertoire is his boxing, not punching. There isn’t much to being a good puncher, however being a good boxer is another thing entirely. You can throw one good punch with a day’s training, but boxing is about opening, setups combinations, and Gustafsson was showing just how much of a difference this makes. Jones had a hard time blocking Gustafssons strikes, or knowing where they would come from, and when they would land they would rarely go unfollowed. And even when Jones would kick or strike Gustafsson would use his better trained head movement to slip the strikes and find where Jones’ defenses would drop and strike there, causing Jones to flinch backwards. Setups, combinations, head movement and level changes: the art of boxing.

And even further Gustafsson had taken Jones down twice and mounted most of his better combinations after parrying one of Jones’ kicks. And kicks where perhaps Jones’ best weapon against Gustafsson next to his elbows, because Jones loves elbows, the main kind you will see and the kind he had landed hard on Gustafsson already are the ones he throws when holding his opponent at a distance, he will step forward and fold his arms driving his elbow into his enemy’s face in a swift and painful strike. But even his elbow folds were not finding him often as Gustafsson slipped and moved away rather than try to simply struggle against Jones’ facepalming as many had before him.

But Jones can adapt to new conditions, it is the mark of a champion after all, and after two times having a parried or caught kick ending with him on the ground when Gustafsson caught another of his kicks he rolled forward dropping into the floor on his own terms and releasing his leg, now using the surprise to put Gustafsson down.

But STILL failed to take down Gustafsson.

As the third round started things looked dire for the champ, especially as the round started and Gustafsson continued to land combinations on Jones, his fluid and clever boxer flummoxing Jones at every opportunity.

But in this round Jones seemed to be catching up, mostly via kicking. With Gustafsson being the superior boxed and his wrestling skills failing at every turn Jones pulled his wide array of kicks into the fight.

An oblique kick then high kick.

Snap kick and leg kick.

The problem being Gustafsson was good at parrying and countering the kicks, but due to the wide variety of them Gustafsson was not able to properly predict them every time, at one point attempting to parry an oblique kick and catching a high kick to the face, but most of the punishment went to his legs.

As the fourth round started Gustafsson was visibly slowing down, both exhausted from his high pace and from the constant leg kicks, and even worse Jones seemed to be adapting to Gustafson’s boxing.

But even then Gustafsson found his spaces to work his art, slipping Jones’ renewed offence and putting on striking combinations on Jones that he could barely keep up with. Even if Jones was adapting to the fight as best as he could he was still catching up rather than pulling ahead.

Jones’ was bleeding onto his eye, tired and barely finding some ground with two rounds left. He looked up at the clock with a sense of desperation and then threw a spinning elbow and in a moment of brilliance or pure luck it landed, hard.

Head movement in MMA is a mixed blessing, up until this point of the fight it had worked for Gustafsson, dodging strikes and using the openings to do Street Fighter levels of combinations on Jon Jones, but now it had betrayed him. One thing to consider about head movement is that it is a boxing asset, in the Pickett/Almeida fight I stressed how knees and kicks make kickboxers not worry about head movement too much because it is likely you will dip into a knee or kick face first. Here we see a different example with a mix of elbow and spinning attack, neither allowed in boxing.

Gustafsson foresaw a strike and dipped forward, had this been a punch or even a folding elbow as Jones had done along the fight he would have been safe, but as Jones span Gustafsson moved his head directly into the elbows path, adding his motion to the collision, and making this much worse than had he stood upright.

Gustafsson was stunned, Jones closed in and grabbed Gustafsson who was now unable to slip the punches or run away, forcing him to take the full force of Jones’ offence.

Gustafsson was injured, stunned and cut but yet stuffed Jones’ takedown. But it was small consolation considering that he was still being held and elbowed, only standing up that is.

With little left on the round, and only one final round left the tides and changed drastically. Jones finally looked like the champion the people had come to expect, and Gustafsson stumbled bloody to his corner.

The fifth round started, and Gustafsson did his best to maintain the offence he had put forward, but it was no longer the same. Jones was capable of intercepting his head movement, he couldn’t build combinations as easily and most of the time he ate a strike whenever he threw one.

And then, after five rounds, on his tenth attempt, Jones finally took Gustafsson down.

This victory was mostly a spiritual one, since Jones was not able to submit or even lay some ground and pound before Gustafsson was back up. But it did show just how much Gustafsson had deteriorated.

Jones now threw high kick after high kick, and while Gustafsson managed to block the brunt of them they still made him wobble and stumble more, now he was no longer dictating the pace or working on setups and combinations, he was simply surviving. His footwork once loose and fanciful was now only there to show he was working, show he was still in the fight.

In the final seconds of the fight Jones threw a flying knee, and Gustafsson held on just barely, propping himself against Jones just long enough for the horn to sound and the fight to be over.

The fight was over, both men did their best to appeal to the crowd, believing to be the winner, the lifter their arms triumphantly but no celebrating could hide their swollen bloodied features, but it was out of their hands now, it would all come to the judges decision.

Then came the judges scorecards: 48-47, 48-47, 49-46 Jon Jones by unanimous decision. The champion was given his due gold and remained, and everyone was in awe of the invincible champ as Gustafsson faded to the background.

But this would not be the only shot Gustafsson had for the gold, but, that’s a topic for next week.