Dana White: Jon Jones wants to fight Daniel Cormier, not Alexander Gustafsson

[Dale]

The UFC's public campaign to maneuver UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones into a rematch with Alexander Gustafsson continues.

After UFC 173, White stated Gustafasson had signed a bout agreement to face Jones on Aug. 30 at a venue to be determined. The hangup, White said at the time, was getting Jones to sign on the dotted line.

"We just signed Gustafsson to a new deal, and Jones will get a new deal too," White stated in the post-UFC 173 media scrum. "We're doing a new deal with him."

As of Monday, though, the parameters have changed. In an interview with UFC.com, the UFC head honcho said Jones has several fights remaining on his contract, and furthermore, he'd rather fight Daniel Cormier.

"Just to clear up a couple things, people think we're in contract negotiations with Jon Jones - we're not," White told UFC.com. "Jon Jones still has five fights left on his contract. So what we're doing right now is trying to get him to sign the bout agreement for Gustafsson. He doesn't want to fight Gustafsson. ... Lorenzo and I have a meeting with Jones on Thursday to get him to sign the bout agreement, and he's asking to fight Cormier instead."

Jones and Gustafsson fought in a classic bout at UFC 165, one in which Jones fell behind, but rallied in the championship rounds to claim a unanimous decision.

Since then, Jones beat Glover Teixeira and Gustafsson stopped Jimi Manuwa, with the idea of a title rematch always on the horizon. In the meantime, Cormier has emerged as an explosive challenger, racking up a 15-0 record with wins against former champions in two weight classes.

Jones and his team have not yet commented on White's latest take

Before I saw this video I would of put it down to the usual Dana bullshit of him trying to put the pressure on a fighter to do what he wants however maybe this time he's right...

 

[Deezy]

I personally don't care for Jon Jones, I think he is as phony as can get. but I will believe this, and I back him 100% on that, it is his career. No neckbeard on Twitter can tell him what he should do with it. Also, he did beat Gustafsson, and the fact that he gets a rematch after one fight just shows how shortsighted the UFC is, and just how thin that division is. Win or lose against Cormier, you can always go back to that rematch, just make people wait a little while longer. Anyone think Anderson/Chael 2 would've been so big if Chael didn't have to wait 2 years? BJ/GSP if BJ didn't have to wait 2 years? Because instant rematches are not big matches at all. Just screams of desperation like Tim Sylvia/Andre Arlovski.

 

[Slim]

Part of me is thinking Jones wants Cormier cause he wants that reach advantage again that he lost while facing Alexander. He's used to that killer reach advantage.

But I do have to agree with Deezy. Rematches for the belt are happening too quickly and too frequently. I mean look at how held up the lightweight division was because they had Edgar and Maynard... and then again with Henderson and Edgar. The division was tied up for about 2 years with those guys. It ruins things. So they could just let Jones and Cormier fight and then maybe at the end of the year the rematch happens... then again it'd mean more if Alexander had a bigger fight beforehand. Instead of just some one off match that people expected him to win in blowout fashion.