The Eagerly anticipated rematch between light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones and the man who’s so far come closest to defeating him, Alexander Gustafsson, is currently being targeted for UFC 177 in Las Vegas on August 30th.
Gustafsson has already verbally agreed to the fight after signing a new deal with the promotion, however Jones so far has not done so as yet.
It’s believed the sticking point is that Jones is also currently negotiating a new deal with the promotion.
There’s also still a slight question mark over the location. UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta told ESPN that it would take place in Las Vegas, though when UFC President Dana White was asked by the media after the event last night he said it wasn’t set in stone yet.
Jones and Gustafsson’s first encounter was an instant classic, with Gustafsson giving the champion all he could handle on the feet while also stuffing his repeated takedown attempts. Jones eventually started to turn the screw in the later rounds though and did enough to earn a unanimous decision victoryin the judges eyes.
It was a highly controversial decision though with many thinking the Swede had done enough to dethrone the title holder, and that helped turn Gustafsson into an overnight star and fueled a level of interest in their rematch which could see it become the biggest fight of the year.
Since that fight the champion has gone on to successfully defend his title with a convincing unanimous decision victory over Glover Teixeira a month ago, while Gustafsson took care of business against Jimi Manuwa in the UK, stopping him by TKO in the second round to set up the rematch.
