Jon Jones next light-heavyweight title defense will come against Sweden’s Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 165 in Toronto on September 21st.
Originally Jones was expected to have a rematch with Lyoto Machida next, but despite having declared him as the no.1 contender the UFC then acknowledged a lack of enthusiasm from fans for that fight so soon after the Brazilian’s previous loss to the champion, and so have opted for a different opponent instead.
And so Gustafsson now rightly gets the opportunity following a very impressive six fight winning streak that most recently includes wins over Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua and Thiago Silva.
A late September date gives Jones plenty of time to fully recover from the broken toe he suffered during his last victory over Chael Sonnen. Jones sees this upcoming bout as a particularly interesting challenge as after taking out a who’s who of UFC 205lb veteran stars, he’s now finally getting the opportunity to lock horns with someone of his own age group, with Gustafsson being his senior by just 6 months.
UFC 165 had at one stage been rumored to be the landing spot for a welterweight title fight between GSP and Johny Hendricks, but it’s now filtered through that it’s going to take place in November instead.
