UFC interested in Jones-Gustafsson in Sweden stadium – on U.S. timetable

BALTIMORE – The UFC will wait for light heavyweight champ Jon Jones to heal up from his seventh title defense at UFC 172. But the promotion has an idea of where it might like to stage his eighth attempt, which is confirmed as opposite Alexander Gustafsson.

UFC President Dana White on Saturday that a stadium show in Stockholm is an ideal place to hold Jones’ rematch with Gustafsson. And if the promotion does hold an event there, he said it will take place at the same time as a domestic pay-per-view.

“At that time back there, it’s light 24 hours a day, or it’s dark for an hour or something like that,” White said following UFC 172 at Baltimore Arena. “So we’d go at 4 o’clock in the morning.”

This past July, the Tele2 Arena was opened in Stockholm. The arena holds up to 45,000 people for concerts and around 30,000 for sporting events.

Gustafsson’s previous trip to Sweden as a headliner took place at Stockholm’s Globe Arena, which holds up to 16,000 people. He secured his rematch with Jones this past month following a dominant second-round TKO of Jimi Manuwa in London.

White hedged slightly on the promotion’s plans by saying an event in the UFC’s home turf of Las Vegas would do well at the box office, but did not think the 26-year-old Jones would object to going into enemy territory for the rematch.

Gustafsson, 27, is a native of Sweden and popular star who already has headlined a sold-out event in the country. And while some might interpret the choice of venue as a slight to the champ, who’s from upstate New York, White seemed to think it wouldn’t be an issue.

“Yeah, Jon’s going to agree to whatever fight we make,” he said. “What’s Jon going to agree to? Where’s he going to want to fight? Seattle?”

Jones (20-1 MMA, 14-1 UFC), who outpointed Glover Teixeira (22-3 MMA, 5-1 UFC) in the headliner of Saturday’s event, repeatedly declined to speak about Gustafsson (16-2 MMA, 8-2 UFC) at the post-fight press conference. He had several opportunities to talk about the meaning of his victory after a hard-fought decision over Gustafsson in his previous performance, but said he wanted to savor his work.

“Sometimes you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do,” White said. “We don’t ever have people say, ‘This is where I’m going to fight my fight.’ It’s never happened. It won’t happen. We’ve got to take the fight wherever the fight is going to do the best.”

Wherever the fight takes place, though, White anticipates it will be one of the bigger rematches in the promotion’s history. He couldn’t say whether a non-U.S. event would affect its performance, but was certain the live gate would be very strong.

“This thing could do 50, 60,000 seats or more,” he said. “If we go to Europe to do it, we will (do the rematch at the Swedish stadium).”

For complete coverage of UFC 172, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.