After falling short in a legendary tussle with Jon Jones at UFC 165, the 2015 campaign was supposed to be one of redemption for the Swedish light heavyweight. But rather than a coronation, Gustafsson found only hardship as he lost back-to-back fights against Anthony Johnson and Daniel Cormier, the former in front of 40,000 of his Swedish countrymen, and the latter in another painfully close bid for the UFC title.
The multiple setbacks cemented Gustafsson as the fourth man in the UFC light heavyweight division's pecking order, and Gustafsson admitted that for a time it was difficult to find the motivation to continue training to become the world's best.