Jon Jones: I Want To See Gustafsson Fight A Top Contender
UFC light heavyweight champion has his hands full with media obligations left and right these days. Today, it was announced that Jones will be featured on the cover EA Sports’ “UFC 2014” video game alongside another unnamed fighter.
Jones is of course coming off of his five round war with Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 165. It was a fight that many deem one of the greatest in mixed martial arts history, and it may just be Jones’ biggest win.
Jones is slated to face off with Glover Teixeira in early 2014, while Gustafsson was set to take on Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in March. However, that fight fell apart when ‘Lil Nog’ pulled out with an injury. Apparently, it wasn’t a fight that Jones deemed necessary anyway.
At an event centered on the game, Jones caught up with Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting to discuss the current title picture at light heavyweight, and his displeasure at how ‘Gus’ was booked:
“I wanna see [Gustafsson] fight a top contender. Seems like these guys are not really having the toughest time to get to the belt. Teixeira goes from Bader to a championship fight. Gustafsson went from Shogun to a championship fight. I feel like they save all the dogs for me and they just give the toughest guys the easiest match-ups to get to a title shot. Let’s see some of these top contenders fight each other. I was like ‘Really? You want him to have the rematch that bad?”
“No disrespect to Nogueira, but let’s see Gustafsson versus Cormier. It makes so much sense. Me, Cormier, Gustafsson and Teixeira, the top four guys in the division. Let’s put us all in a little round-robin pool and see who is the toughest out of us four. Why throw Little Nog into the picture? But whatever, I’m gonna fight the toughest one anyway.”
It seems like quite a change in tune from ‘Bones,’ who was rumored to be willing to give Gustafsson an immediate rematch after their razor thin decision. But he changed his mind after re-watching the fight, and now thinks that Gustafsson should have to prove himself all over again.
While it’s definitely debatable as to whether or not Nogueira was a good opponent for Gustafsson or not, is it right for Jones to insinuate that “The Mauler” needs to fight more top contenders?
After all, had a couple of points gone the either way, it could have been Gustafsson who was granting the rematch to Jones. And you can bet he would have. Jones wants Gustafsson to fight his twitter enemy Daniel Cormier. That’s a good fight, and one we may see come to fruition.
But does “The Mauler” already deserve his coveted rematch?
Outer Photo: Tom Szczerbowski for USA TODAY Sports
