Are you kidding me? If you were to ask me who Alexander Gustafsson should be fighting next the answer would be, without even thinking about it, Jon Jones. I mean, they had a razor close fight for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship where the decision could have gone either way. I feel like a lot of this rests upon the shoulders of Jon Jones who turned down a rematch with Gustafsson in favor of fighting Glover Teixeira, claiming that he “already had beaten” Gustafsson.
On the one hand, I’m not a fan of titles being held up for years due to two guys having a rivalry. It made the super exciting Lightweight division focus on Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard for way too long, hell, that was all of Frankie’s Lightweight Championship level run; a division held up for Frankie. That being said, Gustafsson vs. Jones is a money fight and one that I feel needs to happen, yet Jon Jones is denying fans this and instead Gustafsson will fight down a few levels to relative newcomer to the UFC in Jimi Manuwa.
Manuwa is a decent fighter, but is still relatively untested within the UFC has he holds wins over Kyle Kingsbury, Cyril Diabate and Ryan Jimmo, with the last two suffering freak leg injuries, leading to TKO victories for Manuwa. It just seems like a bit of a stretch to see Manuwa fighting Gustafsson already and an unnecessary risk in ruining the potential rematch between Jones and Gustafsson.
BREAKING: @GarethADaviesDT confirms that @AlexTheMauler will face @POSTERBOYJM on March 8th in London.
— UFC Tonight (@UFCTonight) November 5, 2013