Jon Jones responds to Alexander Gustafsson, says ‘lack of heart’ is why he’s never been UFC champ (updated)

Jon Jones might be the best pound-for-pound MMA fighter ever. He has the Twitter game to match.

The former UFC light heavyweight champion fired a nasty salvo at Alexander Gustafsson on the social-media outlet Wednesday night. Jones blasted Gustafsson for comments Gustafsson made over the weekend about Jones not being a true champion in his eyes.

In response, Jones said that Gustafsson was not a champion because he “didn’t win championship fights.” Jones said the reason Gustafsson lost hard-fought, five-round decisions in title bouts against both Jones and Daniel Cormier was due to a “lack of heart.”

Gustafsson knocked out Glover Teixeira in the fifth-round of a light heavyweight contender bout Sunday in his hometown of Stockholm. Afterward, he was asked about Jones and his upcoming title fight with Cormier, the division’s current champion, at UFC 214 on July 29 in Anaheim, Calif.

“I don’t like [Jones],” Gustafsson said after UFC Fight Night 109. “I give him that he’s the best fighter of all time, the best pound-for-pound fighter of our division — of course, everybody knows that. He hasn’t even lost a fight yet, he demolishes everyone he fights. But as a person, as a champion, he’s not a champion, in my eyes. He’s not a good person, in my eyes.

“That’s why I always tell the guys, ‘I hope that DC [Daniel Cormier] wins, because I like the guy, he’s a worthy champion. So that’s what I mean when I say that he’s the biggest enemy of all-time.”

Jones, of course, took umbrage and started the Twitter barrage by saying Gustafsson should “pray” for Cormier.

Jones has had his outside-the-Octagon issues. A felony hit-and-run arrest sidelined him for almost all of 2015. A USADA suspension for a failed drug test forced Jones out of the UFC 200 main event against Cormier last summer. Jones has not fought since then.

“Bones,” regarded as one of the best ever in the sport, did have one nice to say about Gustafsson. His 205-pound rival proposed to his girlfriend after the Teixeira fight Sunday. Jones congratulated him on his engagement to a “beautiful woman.”

Update: Gustafsson fired back early this morning.