UFC President, Dana White, announced yesterday that the UFC will be placing Alexander Gustafsson against the winner of the UFC 172 main event for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship. Gustafsson is coming off of an impressive TKO win at UFC Fight Night 37 in London this weekend. At UFC 165, Gustafsson went five rounds with the current UFC Light Heavyweight Champ, Jon Jones. It was a close fight that earned many MMA Fight of the Year awards and led many to think that Gustafsson had won the UFC championship. With his victory this weekend he has earned an opportunity to face the winner of the title fight between Jon Jones and Glover Teixeira. Jones believes that both men who are standing out as the two biggest threats to the title, Gustafsson and Daniel Cormier, should face each other to determine who would be the next challenger for the title.
Why not give the winner of Alexander and DC the winner of myself and Glover??
— Jon Bones Jones (@JonnyBones) March 9, 2014
I can agree with Jones to a certain extent about the emptiness of true title contention fights. If you look at men that Glover Teixeira has faced in the UFC before earning a title shot you can understand Jones' frustration over Gustafsson getting a title shot this weekend. Not to take anything away from Jimi Manuwa, who is a talented individual, but we were not even talking about Manuwa as being in line for the title. We all expected to see Gustafsson defeat Manuwa this weekend and he did. We all expected to see Cormier defeat Patrick Cummins and also no surprise, he did! Though I can't wait to see Gustafsson trade leather with Jones again, I can't help thinking that I would much rather see the scenario in which Cormier and Gustafsson would have to face each other for a crack at Jones. I am a big fan of Jones versus either of the two men, I just find the two versus each other more interesting than watch either fight for the title. I think that the UFC want to have Cormier face the winner of Phil Davis vs. Anthony Johnson and then have him fight for the belt with a win. Cormier is new to the division, but I respect what he accomplished in the heavyweight division and feel that his impressive wins should still hold weight when considering lining up challengers at 205 lbs.
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