Jon "Bones" Jones is the UFC light heavyweight champion of the world, and he's scheduled to face Alexander Gustafsson in September for a rematch of the toughest fight of his career. Jones won a narrow decision in that fight, riding a dominant fifth and final round to victory. Now, despite winning, it appears the UFC wants to plop that fight in Sweden, Gustafsson's mother country.
Daniel Cormier: Jon Jones "isn't ducking anybody"
"It won't be Sweden, no chance," Jones said on The MMA Hour. "I have no reason [to go there]. I'm the champ and he's the challenger. I don't really find it appropriate to go in his backyard."
Initially, Jones didn't even want to take the fight. He preferred facing former Olympic wrestler Daniel Cormier, who owns a career record of 15-0 and has yet to lose a round of UFC action in the heavyweight or light heavyweight divisions. Despite Cormier's qualifications, many saw Jones' actions as a way to duck Gustafsson. The champ has since blasted the UFC for playing up that narrative.
Jones discusses real reason for delay on Gustafsson fight
"I identified it as being kind of like a strong-arm technique on [the UFC's] part, to kinda get fans pushing for a fight by prematurely announcing a fight. It's not that I didn't sign a contract; I hadn't even heard that date before. So I thought it was very unprofessional, and I thought it was kind of a bully technique of negotiating," Jones said.
"It looks like [the UFC was playing into the narrative of me ducking Gustafsson] for sure. It was annoying, but I just needed to kind of weather that storm and let everybody call me a chicken for a few weeks until I actually got to go in there and negotiate a contract to take that fight and do things in a more professional manner."
In any case, the fight's been agreed to, and a future matchup with Cormier, should Jones defeat Gustafsson again, is still likely to happen. Cormier would have been damaged going into a fight with Bones anyway; after the announcement of Jones-Gustafsson, Cormier decided to go ahead and have surgery on his injured LCL which will knock him out of action for several months.
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