Dana White Confirms Alexander Gustafsson Will Get The Winner Of Jones vs. Teixeira

Alexander Gustafsson’s dismantling of Jimi Manuwa at the main event of Fight Night London was a thing of beauty; The Swedish ‘Mauler’ lived up to his nickname and put a Viking like beatdown on the ‘Poster Boy’. In my opinion, there is no other option for the winner of Jon Jones vs. Glover Teixeira at UFC 173; it has to be Gus.

During the post fight press conference UFC president Dana White spoke about Gustafsson’s performance in the evening’s main event, check out what he had to say:

‘The fight was awesome, those guys were banging toe-to-toe. Manuwa came here to fight, he was undefeated; but Gustafsson is an absolute beast. I can’t say enough positive stuff about (Gus). We’ll see what happens in the Jones fight; If Jones wins then we have a nasty rematch, if Teixeira wins then it’s Gus vs. Glover.’

It seems a no brainer that Gustafsson will garner the title shot after such an epic win, especially when you consider he risked his number one rank against the heavy underdog Manuwa. ‘The Mauler’ then commented on his performance:

‘I knew what to expect from Jimi, he is very explosive and a very heavy hitter. It was an amazing night, and the crowd was great. Fans mean everything to me. Now I just want to fight him (Jones), that’s all I want, I just want to fight him, and I’m going to finish him.’

Gustafsson’s spot at the top of the light-heavyweight division has been solidified, and his comments on ‘Bones’ show that he is still fired up about their first meeting. The fight, which took place at UFC 165 last year, was a closely contested ‘Fight of the year’ winner. Many fans felt that Gus had actually done enough to win that night.

Gustafsson’s clear motivation for a rematch with Jones is understandable, but there is always a chance that ‘Bones’ could lose the belt against GT. If that happens, the long anticipated rematch between JJ and Gus could be postponed even further. Gustafsson has won in his gamble at Fight Night: London, but now it’s up to Jones and Teixeira to decide the immediate future at light-heavyweight.

On a side note, Gustafsson and Manuwa were questioned as to whether they would ever train together, Manuwa responded positively and Gus said: ‘Absolutely, I’d be very interested in that’. Perhaps ‘The Poster Boy’ will have a hand in training ‘The Mauler’ for his much anticipated Jones rematch?

Photo: Tom Szczerbowski for USA TODAY Sports