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'The Road To The Belt"
On 21st september the swedish mma-fighter, Alexander Gustafson, will have his toughest fight in his career.
The fight is against the reigning UFC-champion, Jon Jones, in the light heavyweight division.
If he succeed, he will not only be the first to defeat Jones, who's regard as the all time best, but also be the first european UFC-champion.
Win or lose Alex will make history september 21st.
He will win, but he will make history...
When he return to Sweden with the belt he will be the first european UFC- champion.
Against the pound for pound best. We got a Mount Everest to climbe, but we're half way there.
They invited us to Alliance after the fight against Phil and I went there to check it out. Then I won my next fight.
It's was a winning concept.
We got a very good team in Allstars Training Center back home in Stockholm. Very good trainers.
A gym for everybody. It's my home. That's were I train and is based.
I always start the camp at home. Then I come here to San Diego because of the sparring.
We've got much heavier guys here and you also get more used to the eviron- ment and jetlag.
We maintain a high level at home in Sweden. We train hard.
We're successful. We win.
But the upper echelon in the UFC have very tough wrestlers.
There for it's important to get good sparring against good wrestlers.
To feel their power and drive. We're talking about college wrestling now...
...not Greco-Roman. We're talking about freestyle wrestling.
It's another type of drive, and you got to train as you fight.
I train two sessions a day six days a week. Two days I sometimes have three sessions a day.
As today I got wrestling training in the morning. We go at it hard. Then we take lunch and get some rest.
And like today we will do "gubben". I will hit mits with Andreas. Then we got a bunch of guys that will put me in uncomfortable positions for five-six rounds.
It's really hard. One of the toughest things you can do. You even get nervous just preparing for it.
That's a normal day. We just work hard.
Is Alex a little worn? -- No, nothing. That was just the fourth guy, we got tvo more.
The camp has been really tough this time. I know, I say it every time. But look at me, I'm completely worn out.
The camp has been very, very, tough. The least I can say is that he's in a incredibly good shape.
If he do not want to fight then I will happily take he's place. I'm ready.
To be a elite athlet is not a easy thing.
To be a MMA-fighter... It's plenty of hard hours behind a camp. There are many sacrifices.
Sacrifice time with your family, loved ones, dogs and everything you hold dear.
We like to keep things comfortable. But as an elite athlete, you need to go out into the deep waters, somewhere where you learn how to swim.
To learn and prepare yourself for what is to come. That's what I'm going through right now. It's tough.
I train and eat MMA right now. The only thing I got in my head is that belt.
I make sure to turn every stone I can to take that belt home.
In the next episode