Fighters Only spoke to the Swedish contender today after he had spent several hours in Manuwa’s company, playing the media game and meeting with an endless stream of reporters.
FO: You’ve been with Jimi all day today and you’ll do it again tomorrow. How does it compare to your press tour with Jon Jones before that fight? I remember you weren’t too keen on Jones after that.
“It’s been OK, it’s been a lot less intense than the press tour with Jon Jones. I think that was five countries in six days? It was crazy. Very heavy schedule.
“It was cool but it was a lot of traveling and a lot of hard work, we had the fight coming up so being around Jon all the time made it more difficult. With Jimi it’s been a lot more relaxed, he’s a nice guy.
“If it was left up to me yeah, obviously I would prefer to be at home training. But it is all part of the job. Sometimes you get to do some cool stuff, like when we went to Asia. And tomorrow we are climbing the arena to square off on the roof.”
FO: Manuwa has ended three UFC fights inside the distance to secure himself a fight with this top contender. His brutal stand-up skills have made him popular with the fans but we haven’t seen much of his floor game. Are you going all-ground for this one?
“I’m just doing my usual training camp, working on my own things and concentrating on my own game. I don’t really tend to look at my opponents too much.
“Obviously the expectation people would have is that I would look to take him down and put him on his back but I really don’t have any one focus, I’m happy wherever the fight goes.”
FO: Speaking of training camps, what is the situation with you and Team Alliance now - are you still part of the squad? If so, why is this camp being undertaken in Sweden and not San Diego?
“I’m still part of Team Alliance, absolutely. Eric Del Fiero is still involved in the camp, my coach Andreas Michael is in contact with him and he feeds in from San Diego. We send him things by email, maybe some video.
“The reason I’m doing this camp in Sweden is practical. I’m staying close to where I’m fighting, I don’t have to deal with jet lag or anything.”
FO: Is anyone coming over from San Diego to spend some time in camp with you?
“Right now there’s not anyone from Team Alliance in San Diego coming over but we are bringing in some Europeans. We’ve got guys from Finland, guys from the Netherlands.
“Obviously the Dutch guys have got a background in kickboxing, you can see why we’re bringing them in…”
FO: For the gamblers out there, how is this fight going to end? Where should they be putting their money?
“It’s a five-round fight but it’s not going to go the distance. If I was going to make a prediction I’d say it will end in the second round. Either I’ll get a submission or a TKO or something. I don’t really have a preference either way.”
Gustafsson predicting finish in second round against Manuwa - Fighters Only
mutta että ihan vankila tuomio ja vielä törkeästä :o
