White on potential Jones-Gustafsson rematch: Champ will take 'whatever fight we make'

(This story appears in today’s edition of USA TODAY.)

Jon Jones wasn’t all that interested in talking about what’s down the road for him, but his boss sure was.

Jones, the UFC’s light heavyweight titleholder, saw a return to dominance by blanking Glover Teixeira on the scorecards at UFC 172 (check out the Jones vs. Teixeira highlights). A win was expected to set up a rematch with Alexander Gustafsson, and UFC President Dana White said that would be the case even as Jones dodged getting specific about his next assignment.

That might be understandable, given that Gustafsson (16-2 MMA, 8-2 UFC) gave Jones (20-1 MMA, 14-1 UFC) what is widely regarded as the toughest test of his career, a narrow unanimous-decision win in September. It was a victory that sent both fighters to the hospital, with Jones looking worse for the wear for the first time in 20 fights.

“I just want to live in the moment and be grateful for what’s happened right now,” Jones said after his win vs. Teixeira (22-3 MMA, 5-1 UFC) in Baltimore, in which he had a much easier go of things than against Gustafsson, a 6-5 Swede. “I envisioned having a dominant performance, but with that last fight the way it was, I wasn’t sure what kind of performance I was going to have. I was hoping that it was back and I would perform at a high level.”

Other potential title challengers are starting to line up in the wings, but they’ll fall into the queue behind Gustafsson, who did his part to set up the rematch with Jones with a knockout of Jimi Manuwa in March.

Gustafsson got more good news beyond the affirmation of his second title shot when White said the best spot for the rematch would be Gustafsson’s hometown of Stockholm.

The UFC returns to Sweden on Oct. 4, and White and the UFC brass already are thinking about sending Jones outside of North America for the first time and into his opponent’s backyard, even if that means making some programming adjustments.

A Jones title fight, especially one with the magnitude of the rematch with Gustafsson, would only make sense for the promotion as a pay-per-view. Doing it at the UFC’s traditional 10 p.m. ET start would mean a main card starting at 4 a.m. in Stockholm.

“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,” White said. “We’ve got to take the fight wherever (it) is going to do the best.”

The UFC, White said, even would consider using the newly opened Tele2 Arena, which could pack upward of 45,000 fans in to watch the hometown hero take another crack at a belt.

But even if Jones wanted to savor his fresh win against Teixeira without worrying about Gustafsson for the time being, White didn’t seem worried about getting the champion, ranked by USA TODAY/MMAjunkie as the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world, to commit to the rematch wherever it takes place.

“Jon’s going to agree to whatever fight we make,” White said.

For more on UFC 172, stay stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.

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