Report: Alexander Gustafsson Served 15 Months in Swedish Prison for GBH

Alexander Gustafsson saw his stock skyrocket after nearly dethroning Jon Jones as UFC light heavyweight champion. That image may take a bit of a hit with some recent news coming to light.

As reported by BJPenn.com, Gustafsson once served 15 months in a Swedish prison for "grievous bodily harm."

Translating the article, it appears as though Gustafsson has a number of convictions for aggravated assault including a year and three months in prison. Gustafsson faced his first charge when he was just 15 years old.

The original article can be found here (translation needed, it's in Swedish).

"I was young and stupid," Gustafsson said. "The time in prison? It was hard."

Gustafsson credited a great amount of energy without clear direction as the reason for his troubles during his youth. He also goes on to say MMA is the main reason for his turnaround.

Bottom line is, everyone makes mistakes, especially when they're young so it's hard to fault Gustafsson at this point. We don't know exactly what he did to be charged and it doesn't appear as though Gustafsson is anywhere close to the same person he was at that time.

Although, it is interesting this story hasn't caught on with larger media. The Swedish article was posted on Dec. 27 and there a number of forum posts about the story.

Even prior to that, Gustafsson has been on the UFC roster since UFC 105 and has been known as a legitimate contender since 2011.

It likely won't change the opinion of too many fans, but it could hurt the UFC and Gustafsson himself should the story look to get twisted around.